A federal judge on Thursday postponed the execution of an Alabama man convicted of fatally stabbing a Fayette County pastor in 1991, though the state could appeal the ruling in an attempt to carry out the execution before midnight.
U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose issued a 60-day delay two hours before the scheduled lethal injection of 46-year-old Christopher Lee Price.
Price had argued Alabama's lethal injection protocol has "botched" previous executions and could cause unconstitutional pain and suffering.
Price instead asked to opt for death by nitrogen gas, a method Alabama approved last year but has developed no protocol for carrying out.
DuBose's ruling followed a Wednesday appellate court order which denied an execution stay, finding that Price missed a 2018 deadline to opt for nitrogen hypoxia.
An appellate court has affirmed the stay of execution for Christopher Lee Price. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday denied Price a stay, but Thursday's ruling states Price provided additional supporting evidence on Thursday to warrant a stay.
The AG's office has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the stay.
Before the stay, Price prepared for the expected execution date with a number of visits and phone calls with his attorney, family and fiancée.
Alabama prison officials said his final request was to be married, which was granted. Price and his fiancée were married in the Holman Correctional Facility yard on Wednesday, April 10.
Price was convicted of the brutal slaying of Bill Lynn, a Fayette County preacher, during the course of a 1991 home robbery. Price was 19 at the time of the murder.
Lynn and his wife, Bessie, were at their Bazemore home three days before Christmas when the house's power went out. When Bill Lynn went outside to check the powerbox, he was attacked, according to court documents. Bessie Lynn later testified that two assailants then beat her before stealing jewelry and money from their home.
Bill Lynn, who prosecutors say was cut or stabbed 38 times with a sword and dagger, died at a hospital approximately 45 minutes after the attack.
Prison officials said Thursday that Bessie Lynn was prepared to witness Price's execution, along with Bill Lynn's two daughters, two grandsons and a nephew.
A Fayette County jury in 1993 sentenced Price to death by a vote of 10-2. Price later tried to contest his sentence, alleging his original trial attorney was unprepared for the penalty phase of his trial. Price argued the lawyer failed to offer evidence that the then-teenager was psychologically traumatized following years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of his mother's boyfriends. The Supreme Court declined to review his case in 2013.
Price's execution is the second set by the state this year. Alabama in February executed Domineque Ray after an 11th-hour U.S. Supreme Court ruling vacated a stay of execution pending a religious rights claim. The court ruled by a narrow majority Ray had waited too late to bring the issue to light.
Ray, a Muslim, had argued Alabama's practice of including a Christian prison chaplain in the execution chamber was in violation of the First Amendment. Ray sought to have his imam present in the death chamber at the time of his death, but the state said it would only allow trained prison employees in the chamber.
The court's 5-4 decision to allow Alabama to execute Ray proved controversial across the country, provoking stinging criticism from both capital punishment opponents and conservative evangelicals, who viewed Ray's claim as a religious liberty issue.
Price requested no spiritual adviser for his execution, officials said.
Source: montgomeryadvertiser.com, M. Brown, The Associated Press, April 11, 2019
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