Despite pleas of innocence from advocates, Alabama has executed Nathaniel Woods for the 2004 killing of three police officers.
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The decision came after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey reviewed the letter requesting a reprieve from the death sentence, but said she would allow the execution to proceed. Nathaniel Woods in an undated photo from the Alabama Dept. of Corrections. Martin Luther King, III, the son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as family members of Woods, a condemned Alabama inmate, are asking the governor to to stop his execution. Woods is scheduled to be executed on Thursday, March 5, 2020. Woods and co-defendant Kerry Spencer were convicted of capital murder for the 2004 killings of three Birmingham police officers.
At news of the temporary stay, the son of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., who had joined a chorus of calls to halt the execution, praised the move. King told Fox News Thursday,"If a person is innocent, they should not be killed in this country. People have been killed and [hanged] for doing nothing. And in this context, if that is the prospect, we ought to at least go through the facts, go through the information, give the system the opportunity to work if it did not work."
"The state offered the testimony of 39 witnesses at Woods' capital murder trial, including Officer Michael Collins, 25 other law enforcement officers, and forensic experts," Ivey wrote in a lengthy statement announcing Woods' execution."There is no evidence, and no argument has been made, that Nathaniel Woods tried to stop the gunman from committing these heinous crimes. In fact, he later bragged about his participation in these horrific murders.
On June 17, 2004, Birmingham police officers Carlos Owen, Harley Chisholm III and Charles Bennett were shot to death while executing a misdemeanor assault warrant for Woods at a suspected crack house in Birmingham. A fourth officer was also shot, but survived and testified against Woods.
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