Willie B. Smith III remains alive on death row in Alabama, after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling that required Smith’s spiritual advisor to be in the execution chamber with Smith when he was given the lethal injection.
The ruling came down around 11:08 p.m. Thursday night, with the Alabama Department of Corrections calling off the execution one minute later.
In the concurring ruling, Justice Elena Kagan said that the law “guarantees Smith the right to practice his faith free from unnecessary interference”.
“The Eleventh Circuit was right to bar Alabama from executing Smith without his pastor by his side,” Kagan said. “Nowhere, as far as I can tell, has the presence of a clergy member (whether state-appointed or independent) disturbed an execution.”
Kagan along with Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Amy Coney Barrett all denied the Alabama Attorney General’s Office’s motion to overturn a lower court ruling requiring Smith’s spiritual advisor to be in the execution chamber.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh along with Justice John Roberts, wrote the dissenting opinion.
Smith’s other claim as to why the execution should be called off centered on what his lawyers called an intellectual disability. While the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay based on that claim Wednesday night, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted that stay around 11 p.m. Thursday.
Smith, 51, was originally set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. inside of William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. Smith refused both breakfast and his last meal, according to Samantha Rose, Public Information Specialist for the Alabama Department of Corrections.
His breakfast consisted of eggs, grits, prunes, apple jelly, wheat toast and an orange drink. His last meal consisted of two chicken leg quarters, fries, kidney beans, sweet potatoes, two oranges and a grape drink.
Despite the meal refusals, Rose said Smith did eat a bag of potato chips and had one Coke to drink during his visitation. He made no special requests.
On Feb. 10, Smith was visited by his wife, mother, stepfather, sister, brother-in-law, two nephews, an investigator with the Federal Defenders Office and his attorney. He also took calls from his wife, mother and two different attorneys.
On Feb. 11, his wife, mother, stepfather, sister, and investigator returned for a visit. He did not take any calls.
Smith was sentenced to death in 1992 for the Oct. 1991 abduction, robbery and murder of Sharma Ruth Johnson. Johnson’s body was found in the trunk of her burned car with a shotgun wound to her head, after being shot execution style at a east Birmingham cemetery.
History of Smith’s legal filings
The most recent history of Smith’s legal filings (following his initial conviction and appeals) began on Jan. 27. Then, Smith’s lawyers argued to the Alabama Supreme Court that his execution should be stayed because the amount of people gathered at the prison’s execution could cause a COVID-19 “super-spreader” event. The AG’s Office responded by filing the Alabama Department of Corrections’ COVID-19 procedures for the execution.
Some of those procedures included:
- Requiring visitors to wear both a face mask and a face shield while visiting the prison.
- Visitors maintaining six feet of distance between themselves and Smith while visiting.
- Visitors undergoing temperature checks and rapid COVID-19 tests.
Five days later, on Feb. 1, the Alabama Supreme Court denied Smith’s motion. The ADOC would later announce that they would allow contact visitation during execution week for Smith, among other things.
Smith’s attorneys with the Federal Defenders for the Middle District of Alabama filed a lawsuit seeking a stay of execution, in federal court on Feb. 3. In the lawsuit, Smith’s lawyers cite a number of reasons the execution should not take place, most of which are due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of their concern centered around the requirement of Smith to wear personal protective equipment when he was put to death, which his lawyers argued could affect the ADOC’s consciousness check. The consciousness check is a standard protocol for the ADOC during executions, and involves a corrections officer flick an inmates eye, pinch his arm, and yell his name after the first drug-- designed to render the inmate unconscious-- is administered.
The Alabama Attorney General’s Office replied to the motion the next day, saying Smith did not have to wear PPE during the execution. Officials performing the consciousness check will also be allowed to remove their PPE temporarily, according to the AG’s office.
In the federal court documents filed on Feb. 7, Smith’s attorneys argued the changes the ADOC made in response to an earlier complaint and emergency motion to stay the execution still violated Smith’s rights.
On Wednesday night, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted Smith a stay of execution based on his claim of intellectual disability. The stay was to be in place for several days, according to the order, so the court could review the merits of the claim. According to the 11th Circuit’s ruling, Smith was granted a stay of execution until Feb. 16 at 5 p.m. EST.
The same night, the federal appeals court granted another win to Smith’s legal team when they reversed a lower court’s ruling that barred Smith from having his spiritual advisor in the execution chamber when he is put to death. An ADOC policy enacted in April 2019 doesn’t allow an inmate to have any religious representative in the execution chamber.
The AG’s Office appealed both the 11th Circuit Court orders to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday morning. The court’s final orders on the case came hours later.
, Tandra Smith, February 12, 2021
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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
