Joe Nathan James: Alabama is set to execute a death row inmate despite pleas from the victim’s family not to
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“She was a loving, forgiving person,” Hall said of her mother. “I’m quite sure if she was here today, or if she were in this situation, she would want to forgive.”
“We don’t think (execution) is called for because it won’t bring her back,” she added.
Helvetius Hall, Smith’s brother, also pushed for a prison sentence instead of death.
The execution is set to come after more than 25 years of legal appeals in James’ case. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey did not respond to a request for comment from CNN on the execution.
James and Smith had a “volatile” relationship and, after they broke up, he stalked and harassed her, went to her home uninvited and threatened to kill her and her ex-husband, according to a US Court of Appeals filing summarizing the case. In 1994, he followed her to a friend’s home and then shot her three times, killing her, the filing states.
A jury in Jefferson County found him guilty of Smith’s murder and recommended the death penalty in 1996, but the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction based on erroneous admission of hearsay evidence, the appeals court states.
Before the retrial, James’ legal team arranged a plea deal with prosecutors in which he’d receive life in prison in exchange for a guilty plea, but James rejected that plan, the filing states.
“James explained that he had it pretty good on death row — he had his own room, his own television that he could control to watch what he wanted, and plenty of reading material,”…
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Source : cnn
