First lethal injection in Alabama

ATMORE, Ala., Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A 46-year-old man became the first person to die by lethal injection in Alabama, as he was executed Thursday for his role in a 1984 murder and robbery.

Anthony Keith Johnson of Oak Ridge, Ala., was put to death at the Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore in connection with the March 11, 1984, slaying of Kenneth Cantrell, a Hartselle jeweler who was shot five times during a robbery attempt at his home.

The U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Don Siegelman refused to stay the execution just hours before it took place.

Johnson was the first person to be put to death in Alabama since the state legislature changed Alabama's primary method of execution from the electric chair to lethal injection earlier this year.

The jury that convicted Johnson in 1985 voted 9 to 3 to recommend life in prison, but Circuit Judge L.R. Hundley instead sentenced him to death. Johnson's attorneys said Hundley now supported changing the sentence to life in prison.

Others, including the triggerman, participated in Cantrell's murder, but no one else was ever been charged in the case.

Johnson identified a gunman, but Morgan County District Attorney Bob Burrell said Johnson's statement is "insufficient for any useful purpose."

Alabama spent $185,000 this year to create a new execution chamber for injecting prisoners with the three chemicals used to induce death.