Mobile, AL – Attorneys are spending the eve of Thomas Arthur's planned execution in court.
The attorneys have dueling affidavits from a convicted murderer who claims he's guilty of the killing that sent Arthur to death row and another disputing that claim.
The crossfire comes as the 66-year-old Arthur faces lethal injection at 6 p.m. (CDT) Thursday at Holman Prison.
He been convicted three times in the Feb. 1, 1982 killing of Troy Wicker Jr. of Muscle Shoals and has come within a day of execution twice before winning court delays.
Arthur's attorneys claim DNA testing can exonerate him.
They're seeking a stay of execution from Gov. Bob Riley and the courts by using an affidavit from convicted murderer Bobby Ray Gilbert, who is serving a life sentence at St. Clair Correctional Facility.
But Wicker's widow, Judy Wicker, who served a prison sentence for hiring the killer, said in an affidavit that she never met Gilbert and again accused Arthur of the killing.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)