Alabama Lethal Injection

Charles “Sonny” Burton didn’t kill anyone. The state of Alabama could execute him anyway. Burton, 75, is facing execution for his role as an accomplice in a 1991 robbery at an auto parts store where customer Doug Battle was killed. No one disputes that another man, Derrick DeBruce, shot and killed Battle.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a case that could make it harder for convicted murderers to show their lives should be spared because they are intellectually disabled. The justices are taking up an appeal from Alabama, which wants to put to death a man who lower federal courts found is intellectually disabled and shielded from execution.

An Alabama man convicted of helping to burn a man alive in 1993 over a $200 drug debt was executed by nitrogen gas on Thursday. Anthony Boyd, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m. at William C. Holman Correctional Facility, authorities said.

Thirty-five men have died by court-ordered executions in the U.S. so far this year, including one early Friday, with seven others scheduled to be put to death later this month. The increase in executions is largely being driven by four states — Alabama, Florida, Texas, and South Carolina — that have carried out 76% of this year's court-ordered killings.

An Alabama man convicted of killing a woman during a 1997 gas station robbery was put to death Thursday after apologizing to his victim's family and pleas from the woman's son to spare his life.

Alabama is preparing to execute a man convicted of killing a woman during a 1997 gas station robbery in what will be the nation's latest execution carried out with nitrogen gas. It is one of two executions scheduled Thursday in the United States. Texas plans to carry out a lethal injection on the same evening.

Alabama is scheduled to execute Geoffrey West on Thursday for the 1997 murder of Margaret Berry. Berry was killed during a gas station robbery. Berry's son has asked the state to not execute West and let him serve life in prison.

A federal judge has ordered a new trial for an Alabama death row inmate after tests showed it was another man's DNA on the victim's body. Chief U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks last week ruled that Christopher Barbour must get a new trial. Barbour, now 56, was convicted of the 1992 stabbing death of Thelma Bishop Roberts in Montgomery.

Alabama has scheduled an October execution by nitrogen gas for an inmate who has an ongoing lawsuit challenging the new method as unconstitutionally cruel. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey on Monday set an Oct. 23 execution date for Anthony Boyd, 53. Boyd is one of four men convicted in the 1993 killing of Gregory Huguley in Talladega. Prosecutors said Huguley was burned to death after he failed to pay for $200 worth of cocaine.

The scheduled execution of an Alabama Death Row inmate will not go forward next week as the state waits for the completion of a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. A judge last month stayed the August, 21st execution of David Lee Roberts until a mental evaluation could be conducted to see if Roberts is competent to be executed.