Alabama executes John Forrest Parker

ATMORE -- Alabama corrections authorities say they executed by lethal injection John Forrest Parker (left) at 6:41 p.m. CST Thursday.

Parker, 42, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die for the killing of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, a 45-year-old grandmother who was stabbed repeatedly and beaten with a pipe at her Colbert County home.

Prosecutors said Parker was one of two men paid $1,000 each by a third man on behalf of her husband, the Rev. Charles Sennett, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. He committed suicide one week after his wife's slaying.

Parker appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday after the Alabama Supreme Court voted 7-2 to reject his plea for a stay. Shortly before the scheduled execution time of 6 p.m. Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected in appeal.

In the appeal, Parker's attorneys challenged the constitutionality of an Alabama law that allowed the trial judge to override the jury's recommendation that Parker be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office filed a response Thursday saying Parker had raised the override argument earlier in his appeal. They said that it was rejected by courts and that the trial judge sufficiently considered the jury's recommendation before sentencing Parker to death.

Parker was moved earlier this week into a holding cell just a few steps from the death chamber where he is to be strapped to a gurney and receive the lethal injection.

He spent most of Thursday meeting with friends and family members, including his mother, Joan Parker, and his father, Edward Parker. Friend Carolyn Watson and two religious advisers from the Kairos prison ministry, Ben Sherrod and Taylor Perry, were to witness the execution.

Prisons spokesman Brian Corbett said Parker was calm and spent some of his time Thursday reading the Bible.

He gave most of his possessions to his mother, including a gold watch, a mirror, seven stamps and a box of pictures. He gave a belt and a wallet to 2 nephews.

The family planned to take possession of the body after the execution.

When asked if had any final words, Parker turned his head to face Mike and Charles Sennett, the victim's sons, and said, "I'm sorry. I don't ever expect you to forgive me. I really am sorry."

He then turned his head toward a room where a friend, Carolyn Clemons, and several religious advisers, were sitting. His voice breaking and near tears, Parker said, "I appreciate everything. You all know that I love you."

He then gave Clemons, who described herself as Parker's common law wife, a thumbs up sign. She sobbed loudly as she watched his body quiver and then grow still.

Mike Sennett said later he doesn't know if the apology was sincere.

"He told us that he was sorry and that he was young. He had 22 years to tell me he was sorry and five minutes before he dies he tells me. Do I believe him? Probably not," he said.

Charles Sennett said that only God knows if Parker was truly remorseful.

"He sounded sincere. I don't know if he was," Charles Sennett said.

The brothers, in a written statement, said the quiet death of Parker on a hospital gurney did not compare to the violent death of their mother in her home 22 years ago.

"The pain he did not feel today does not compare to the pain he inflicted on our mother," their statement said.

But Clemons said that Parker, who she had known for more than 30 years, was a compassionate, loving man who did what he did because of drugs and did not need to die.

She said she was "devastated and hurt" as she watched him die. "It was something I'll never be able to move past," she said.

A 2nd man accused of taking part in the attack, Kenneth Eugene Smith, now 44, also is on death row but does not have an execution date.

Parler becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabama and the 46th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Parker becomes the 27th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1215th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Source: al.com, Rick Halperin, June 10, 2010

Birmingham News editorial board

OUR VIEW: If a jury's vote had been heeded, as it should have been, an inmate scheduled to be executed today would not have gotten the death penalty at all

Unless courts intervene, John Forrest Parker will be put to death today by the state of Alabama.

Maybe you think that is just as well. Parker was sentenced to death for killing Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett in 1988 at the behest of her husband, the Rev. Charles Sennett. Murder for hire is one of the offenses deemed worthy of the death penalty in Alabama.

But the jury that heard the evidence against Parker and found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt did not believe, in this particular case, the death penalty was warranted. In most states, that would have been the last word, and Parker would not be facing execution today.

In Alabama, it's a different story. Judges here are given the power to disregard the jury's recommendation and impose a death sentence anyway. Parker is, at least for now, living proof.

Jurors on a 10-2 vote recommended Parker be sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing Mrs. Sennett. Colbert County Judge Inge Johnson, who is now a federal judge, sidestepped the jury's wishes and said Parker should die for his crime.

Parker's lawyers have attempted a last-minute appeal, arguing that Johnson did not follow proper procedures in overruling the jury. State prosecutors argue otherwise, and they contend Parker waited too long to raise the issue anyway.

In our view, the bigger problem is not how Johnson disregarded the jury's opinion but that she was free to do so in the first place. In most cases, it might be fine for judges to have the last word on punishment. But as courts have rightly recognized, death is different.

This newspaper opposes the death penalty regardless. But we understand others disagree, and that some families of victims have particularly strong opinions on this subject. But even those who support capital punishment ought to be troubled that judges can order someone's death when jurors don't think it's appropriate.

A few other states grant judges similar power of life and death, but it is restricted and rarely used. In Alabama, judges have used this power liberally, accounting for a fifth of the state's Death Row population.

Also noteworthy is the fact Alabama judges are elected and often feel pressure to be tough on crime. Remember: Judges also can disregard juries that recommend death sentences and order life in prison instead, but it almost never happens. How can juries almost always be right when they recommend death, but so often be wrong when they recommend life?

We don't know why the jury that convicted Parker decided death was not a fitting punishment. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact the victim's husband, who instigated the crime, committed suicide a week later and was not around to answer for his role. But we're pretty sure jurors didn't make the call in Parker's case based on any worries about an upcoming election.

When juries say a death sentence isn't fitting, that ought to matter. In Alabama, it doesn't. As a result, the state today is preparing to execute a man a jury didn't believe should get the death penalty at all.

Published: Thursday, June 10, 2010, 4:48 PM