Nathaniel Woods executed as accomplice in 2004 police murders
A Birmingham man was executed Thursday evening on a 2005 conviction of being an accomplice to the murder of three police officers.
Nathaniel Woods, 43, was pronounced dead at 9:01 p.m. after an execution that lasted 15 minutes.
Woods was put to death amid a storm of appeals and protests from supporters, who noted that Woods did not actually kill officers Charles Bennett; Carlos "Curly" Owen and Harley Chisholm III on June 17, 2004; that Woods' attorneys missed key deadlines in his appeals, and that the trigger man — also on death row — said Woods was not involved.
Woods visited with his family members Thursday afternoon, including his daughter and granddaughter. His sister Pamela said after they were seeking time to submit evidence to the courts on Woods' behalf.
"We want justice for the officers," she said. "We want justice for my brother. It can't be one-sided or for one group of people. You have to have justice for everyone. We want justice for Nathaniel."
Woods had no final words before the execution began at 8:39 p.m. on Thursday. He kept his head and shoulders elevated on the gurney he was strapped to for the first several minutes of the execution, looking at one of the galleries. He held his right finger out throughout the execution.
The Woods family and hundreds of thousands of people appealed to Gov. Kay Ivey to extend clemency to Woods.
Officers Bennett; Owen and Chisholm III were shot and killed in a drug house on Birmingham's west side on June 17, 2004. The shooter, Kerry Spencer, is on death row; an execution date for Spencer has not been set.
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In a statement Thursday night, Ivey accused Woods of luring the police officers into the house, and said two other individuals had been executed in Alabama since 1983 "for being an accomplice to capital murder."
“After thorough and careful consideration of the facts surrounding the case, the initial jury’s decision, the many legal challenges and reviews, I concluded that the state of Alabama should carry out Mr. Woods’ lawfully imposed sentence this evening," the statement said.
Though Woods acknowledged he and Spencer sold drugs, he is not accused of actually killing the officers and by all accounts did not have a gun at the time of the shooting.
But at his 2005 trial, prosecutors argued that Woods had "conspired" with the shooter, Kerry Spencer. Alabama law makes a person legally accountable for the behavior of another person if he or she "procures, induces or causes such other person to commit the offense." Prosecutors did not provide evidence that Woods held or fired a gun during the incident.
A jury convicted Woods and voted 10-2 to sentence him to death. Spencer told The Appeal last month that Woods was not involved and that "there was no plan to kill the police."
"Killing this African American man, whose case appears to have been strongly mishandled by the courts, could produce an irreversible injustice," King wrote. "Are you willing to allow a potentially innocent man to be executed?"
U.S. Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama said in a statement Thursday he called Ivey's office to express concerns about the case.
"Given the questions and mitigating issues involved in this case -- and the finality of a death sentence -- a delay is warranted to provide time for a thorough review of all the facts and circumstances to truly ensure that justice is done," the statement said.
Kim Kardashian West sent a tweet urging Ivey to commute Woods' sentence, and later shared a number for Gov. Ivey's office. The rapper and actor T.I. also called on followers to contact Ivey. The family of former Alabama and Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr also called for clemency.
Woods' family delivered letters to Ivey on Wednesday in protest of the execution.
The debate over Woods extended to the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on Thursday morning. Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, told the body that "the evidence shows (Woods) is an innocent man."
"What we are facing right now is a travesty what happened," he said. "Those families lost their families, their husbands, their fathers, their brothers. But the man who’s been in prison all these years didn’t do anything to cause him to be on death row."
Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Birmingham, a veteran of the Birmingham Police Department who knew the officers who were killed that day, said he "lost three buddies that day."
"My thoughts today go to that family," he said. "To his wife that called me crying, who called and said 'Allen, do you think I’ll live long enough to see justice served?'"
Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, said he did not have a problem with capital punishment for those who pulled the trigger. But he said Woods did not fit that bill.
"He did not kill one officer," he said. "He was a drug addict in the wrong place at the wrong time."
✔ Woods becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabama and the 67th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.
✔ Woods becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,517th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Source: Montgomery Advertiser, Staff; Rick Halperin, March 5, 2020
Alabama executes inmate Nathaniel Woods
(CNN) -- Alabama has executed inmate Nathaniel Woods for the 2004 murders of three Birmingham police officers, the state corrections department said.
Woods, 42, did not give a final statement. He was pronounced dead at 9:01 p.m. local time, the department said in a statement Thursday.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey refused to stop the controversial execution, and the US Supreme Court denied a last-minute stay, after first ordering a temporary halt only minutes before Woods had been scheduled to die.
Woods was convicted in 2005 of capital murder, but there were questions about his culpability, his representation at trial, and his co-defendant, Kerry Spencer said Woods was innocent.
Just hours before Woods was slated to die, Woods' attorneys petitioned the Supreme Court to block the execution, citing concerns about the method by which he was to be executed.
In a phone interview from William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Escambia County, Spencer told CNN that he alone fatally shot the three officers in 2004 when they stormed the crack house where he was sleeping. A fourth officer was shot but survived.
Woods wasn't involved, he said. In fact, Spencer said, Woods ran when the gunfire erupted.
"Nate is absolutely innocent," said Spencer, who also is on Alabama's death row. "That man didn't know I was going to shoot anybody just like I didn't know I was going to shoot anybody that day, period."
Activists, including Martin Luther King III, Bart Starr Jr., and Woods' attorneys, had asked Gov. Kay Ivey to commute his sentence, but in a Wednesday statement, state Attorney General Steve Marshall called Woods' punishment just. He took issue with those who said Woods was innocent or that he surrendered to police during the June 2004 drug raid.
"The falsehoods are the descriptors 'surrendered' and 'innocent': Neither apply whatsoever to Nathaniel Woods, whose actions directly caused the deaths of three policemen and injury to another," the statement said. "Justice is set to be carried out tomorrow. The only injustice in the case of Nathaniel Woods is that which was inflicted on those four policemen that terrible day."
Ivey's general counsel said in a letter to Woods' attorney Thursday night that the governor wouldn't stop the execution.
"Governor Ivey does not presently intend to exercise her powers of commutation or reprieve in this case," William G. Parker, Jr. wrote.
'Nate ran'
Speaking on the phone from death row at Holman prison, Spencer said that on the night of the killings he and Woods had already had a run-in with two police officers. He decided to pop a pill with a Bud Light so he could get some sleep, he said. He and Woods planned to go home once the officers got off of their shifts because they didn't want to run into them again, he said.
"When I woke up I had the chopper on my lap," he said, using slang for the SKS rifle authorities say he used to kill the officers. "When I got up, I got up with the rifle. I'm in a crack house. We sell dope. This is what we do. You always have to have your gun on you at the ready if you're inside that f***ing apartment."
Spencer heard fumbling around in another room. He looked out the window and saw police cars, but he thought the officers were outside, he said.
He emerged from the bedroom, he said, as Woods walked out of the kitchen with a knot on his head, holding his eyes. It wasn't clear what was happening, he said, but then he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.
"When I looked to the side, there was two police officers trying to train their guns on me so I opened fire with the f***ing rifle. I wasn't trying to get shot, period. I got a rifle in my hand. They're going to shoot me," he said.
He didn't care that the men in the house were policemen, he said: "You point a gun at me, bitch, I'm fixing to shoot."
"When I opened fire, Nate jumped as if he was getting shot, you understand? And once he seen he wasn't getting shot, when I kept firing, that n***a took off," Spencer told CNN.
When Spencer was first taken into custody, he said, he clammed up but eventually told investigators that Woods was not involved.
"I told them Nate didn't shoot nobody. Nate ran. Nate didn't even have a f***ing gun." he said.
Spencer, who had a chance to hang out and reminisce with Woods on Saturday, considers Woods a brother, he said.
"Nate is a good guy. Nate ain't no killer. The reason Nate was down there in the dope house with us is because he needed money," Spencer said, adding that Woods had to be supervised because he was so soft-hearted he'd give drugs away for free.
Prosecutor: Woods is not innocent
On June 17, 2004, Birmingham police officers Charles Bennett, Harley Chisholm III, Carlos Owen and Michael Collins went to the apartment to arrest Woods, Marshall said in a letter to Ivey this week. A source had told officers that Woods and Spencer were armed and dealing crack to at least 100 customers a day, the prosecutor said.
Woods had threatened Owen, who had arrested him as a teenager, that morning, he said. Upon learning Woods had a misdemeanor assault warrant, the four officers returned to the apartment and told Woods to come outside, Marshall wrote.
"If you come in here, we'll f**k you up," Marshall quoted Woods as saying.
Chisholm went to the back and showed the warrant to Woods, who ran into the apartment, and the officers gave chase. Woods surrendered and asked the officers not to Mace him, the letter said.
Collins went outside and heard gunfire. Spencer shot Chisholm as he tried to retreat, Marshall said, and when Woods tried to escape, he saw Collins and said, "There's someone else. We got another one right here," and Spencer opened fire on Collins, who took a bullet in the thigh as he took cover and called for backup, the prosecutor said.
When help arrived, Bennett was found outside the front door, shot in the head, and Chisholm and Owen were inside. They had been shot in the back, through their bulletproof vests, Marshall wrote. All three were dead.
Investigators found Spencer in a neighbor's attic, and Woods "was found sitting on a nearby porch, apparently 'very relaxed' and carrying two .22 caliber bullets in his pocket," his letter said.
"Although Woods was not the shooter, he was hardly an innocent bystander," Marshall wrote, explaining that Woods allegedly bragged about the shootings, threatened a sheriff's deputy and composed drawings and songs boasting of the killings.
In one song, Woods riffed on a Dr. Dre song, "Haven't you ever heard of a killa/I drop pigs like Kerry Spencer," Marshall alleged.
Based in part on the testimony of 39 witnesses, Woods was convicted on four capital murder counts: three counts of intentionally killing a police officer in the line of duty and one count of killing two or more people while pursuant to a scheme or course of conduct. A jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty.
Pleas to the Alabama governor
He closed by writing, "Don't allow another innocent man to be executed if you can do something to put a stop to it. This is my most fervent prayer."
Spencer has a federal appeal pending in the Northern District of Alabama.
Woods' relatives and supporters proclaimed his innocence outside the Capitol in Montgomery on Wednesday. According to AL.com, his sister insisted he had nothing to do with the murders.
"We do feel really bad for what happened that day. We don't wish that on anyone, for their family to have to deal with that. It was very unfortunate that the shooter did what he did. But the main point is that Nathaniel had no parts in those actions of another man, Kerry Spencer," Pamela Woods told the news outlet.
In Martin Luther King III's letter, the son of the civil rights icon pleaded with Ivey to use her power to stop the execution of "a man who is very likely innocent."
"Killing this African American man, whose case appears to have been strongly mishandled by the courts, could produce an irreversible injustice," he wrote.
Bart Starr Jr., the son of the late NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, also advocated for mercy in Woods' case, telling CNN affiliate WBRC that while the shootings were tragic, executing Woods would amount to another tragedy.
"Simply being at the wrong place where someone else shows up and then starts firing at police officers is not a reason to assign culpability to someone else," he told the station.
Relatives of two of the slain officers, Owen and Bennett, have declined to comment, while Chisolm's family has not responded to CNN's request for comment.
Woods' attorneys have said he was represented by a court-appointed lawyer who had never handled a capital case, conducted an inadequate investigation and failed to advise him properly about taking a plea deal that was offered.
The US Supreme Court turned down Woods' appeal last year. Marshall has said there's no evidence Woods was ever offered a plea deal, and former District Attorney David Barber, who prosecuted Woods, has submitted an affidavit saying he has no knowledge of any proffered deal.
Source: CNN, Justin Gamble, Carma Hassan, Ariane de Vogue, Jamiel Lynch and Theresa Waldrop, March 6, 2020
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde