By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – Attorneys attempting to delay Thomas Arthur's execution have sent Gov. Bob Riley and court officials an affidavit signed by another inmate who says he killed Troy Wicker Jr.
Bobby Ray Gilbert, who is serving life without parole, says in his handwritten affidavit that he was a 17-year-old having an affair with Wicker's wife when she hired him to kill her husband for $2,000.
Arthur is scheduled to die Thursday for the killing of Wicker in 1982.
In the affidavit, Gilbert says he first admitted the killing to a friend only last year and attempted to contact Arthur's lawyers.
The affidavit came as the Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to delay Arthur's execution, set for Thursday by lethal injection.
State officials had no immediate comment on the sworn statement.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)