Alabama man executed after Supreme Court denies appeal

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Ronald Bert Smith, a man an Alabama jury recommended be sentenced to life in prison 22 years ago for the fatal shooting of a store clerk, was executed Thursday night after a four-hour delay while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed his case.

The Court issued a temporary stay for Smith on Thursday night as it reviewed his appeal, deciding Alabama could move forward with the execution.

Smith, whose execution was originally scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, was executed around 9:45 p.m. During 13 minutes of the 34-minute execution, witnesses say he appeared to struggle for breath, heaved and coughed.

Smith, 45, was convicted in 1995 for killing Huntsville convenience store clerk Casey Wilson in 1994. Alabama is the only state in the United States in which a jury can decide to execute someone with a split vote. Alabama law also allows a judge to overrule the jury's recommendations.

Smith's jury recommended he spend the rest of his life in prison with a 7-5 vote. But a trial judge overrode the recommendation and sentenced him to death.

Madison County District Attorney Robert Broussard said that although Smith's death sentence has been repeatedly delayed, his educated guess is no valid appeals remain and the execution will be carried out.

"Alabama's scheme has withstood constitutional challenge and is still valid," Broussard told WAFF. "I do wonder how it is that this process takes as long as it does. The fact that it takes 20 years or better before a sentence is finally carried out is, to me, ridiculous. Look at the good people of the community who have suffered the most horrendous loss that you can imagine, and they have to wait around all these years and live in agony until something is finally done. That to me is unspeakable."

In January, the Supreme Court struck down a law in Florida that allowed judges to designate death sentences for defendants instead of the jury of a murder case -- citing a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that stated jurors have final say in death sentence cases tried by a jury.

Alabama's judges are elected officials and the Equal Justice Initiative group argues judicial overrides increase during election years -- suggesting some death sentences could be imposed not because of the facts related to the case, but because judges seek to display themselves as tough on crime during their re-election campaigns.

"Alabama continues to use a system in which trial judges can override a jury's recommended sentence of life in prison without parole and turn it into a death sentence. How is that constitutional?" the Los Angeles Times wrote in an editorial. "As long as the death penalty exists, its application must be subject to the strictest review and respect fundamental constitutional rights. The 6th Amendment guarantees the right to a trial by a jury of one's peers, and the courts have ruled that the finding of facts that lead to a death sentence are the purview of those peers, not the judge."