The state of Alabama executed death row inmate Jamie Ray Mills, convicted for killing an elderly couple in 2004, using lethal injection on Thursday, May 30.
Knewz.com has learned that Mills ate seafood for his last meal and was visited by six individuals before his execution at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in southwest Alabama.
The 50-year-old was convicted of the capital murder of Floyd and Vera Hill on June 24, 2004, at their residence about 80 miles northwest of Birmingham.
Mills reportedly attacked them using a hammer, machete, and tire tool during a robbery at the elderly couple’s home and stole $140 and prescription drugs. Officers responding to the scene found the Hills in pools of blood in their backyard shed.
According to court filings cited by The Associated Press, 87-year-old Floyd Hill died from the injuries on his head and neck, while his wife, 72-year-old Vera Hill, died from complications of head trauma around 12 weeks after the incident.
The tackle box containing prescription medication belonging to Mrs. Hill, along with the murder weapons and bloody clothes, were later found in the trunk of Mills’ car.
In his 2007 trial, he was found guilty of capital murder by a jury that voted 11-1 in favor of the death sentence.
On Thursday, 20 later, Mills was put to death with a lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6.26 p.m. local time. Before his execution, he had six visitors, according to a statement from the Alabama Department of Corrections, as cited by CBS News. The statement also mentioned that Mills had seafood for his last meal.
Acording to The Associated Press, Mills’s last words were, “I love my family. I love my brother and sister. I couldn’t ask for more,” as he looked in the direction of his brother and sister. He also thanked his attorney, Charlotte Morrison of the Equal Justice Initiative. “Charlotte, you fought hard for me. I love y’all. Carry on.”
The execution was witnessed by several members of the victims’ families, who released a statement saying, “Our family now can have some closure to this heinous crime that he committed and our loving grandparents can rest in peace. Let this be a lesson for those that believe justice will not find you.”
“Hopefully, this will prevent others from committing future crimes. God help us all,” the statement added.
It is worth noting that two others were found guilty in the murder of the elderly couple: JoAnn Mills and a reported drug dealer named Benjie Howe.
JoAnn, Jamie Mills’s common-law wife, eventually became a key witness in the case. She initially suggested to the authorities that it was Howe who planted the evidence in the trunk of Mills’s car to frame her and her husband.
However, she later changed her stance and provided the testimony that helped the prosecutors create a case.
She testified at the 2007 trial that on the day of the incident, he stayed up all night smoking methamphetamine, and then took her to the victims’ home where she saw him “repeatedly strike the couple in the backyard shed,” per The Associated Press. while on the stand, JoAnn also said that she hoped to gain “some forgiveness from God” by testifying against Mills’s crime.
Mills became the second person in Alabama and the sixth person in the country to have been executed this year. In January, Alabama executed 58-year-old Kenneth Smith using the first-of-a-kind method of nitrogen hypoxia, a decision that triggered heated debates over several months.
The post Last Meal: Alabama Inmate Who Killed Elderly Couple For Just $140 Gorged on Seafood, Had Six Visitors Before Lethal Injection appeared first on Knewz.
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Author: Samyarup Chowdhury
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