Willie B Smith: Alabama death row inmate convicted of shotgun slaying of woman in 1991 gets last-minute stay
A federal court has granted an Alabama death row inmate temporary reprieve after he was expected to be executed on Thursday, February 11. The Alabama Supreme Court set the date for 51-year-old Willie B Smith's execution in an 8-0 ruling last week, almost three decades after he was convicted of murder. According to CBS News, the death sentence had been handed down to Smith in 1992 for the murder of Sharma Ruth Johnson, 22, in east Birmingham, Alabama.
Smith was unsuccessful when he first tried to appeal his sentence in 2012, arguing that he was intellectually disabled. However, on Wednesday evening, he was granted a stay in order to allow another judiciary review of his claim.
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According to LadBible, the stay granted by the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals expires on February 16. However, the death warrant expires until midnight today. This means that the courts will have to seek a new date for his death from the state Supreme Court if he has not been executed per the warrant. In an additional victory, the 11th Circuit also reversed a lower court's ruling that prevented Smith from having a spiritual advisor with him in the execution chamber. "Mr. Smith pled that he believes that the point of transition between life and death is important, and that having his spiritual advisor physically present at that moment is integral to his faith," Smith's attorneys wrote in court documents.
The 11th Circuit order states: "This appeal presents the question of whether a death-row prisoner is entitled to have his religious advisor present inside the execution chamber at the time of execution." According to LadBible, the Alabama Department of Corrections doesn't allow an inmate to have anyone accompany them in the execution chamber. The policy came into place in 2019 after the department's Christian chaplain was required to be in the chamber. However, it was changed after Domineque Ray, a Muslim inmate, was denied the company of his Islamic spiritual advisor at the time of his death.
In 1991, Smith kidnapped Sharma Ruth Johnson at gunpoint nearby a local bank. Angelica Willis, Smith's housemate, approached Johnson while she was sitting in her car to ask for directions. Willis then forced Johnson into the boot of her own car by her threatening her with a sawn-off shotgun. Smith subsequently went to the bank and drew out $80 using Johnson's ATM card that she'd dropped on the floor. Accompanied by Willis, he then took the car to pick up his brother Lorenzo and drove to Zion Memorial Cemetery. There, Smith decided he had no choice but to kill Johnson fearing she would go to the authorities.
According to the report, Johnson's body remained in the trunk when the vehicle was abandoned. The following day, Smith returned to burn the car and destroy any evidence. Smith was caught in a wiretap recording describing the victim's final moments before he killed her. "She said, no I ain't like that, she said that. I touched her head, I said you're a m***********g liar, boom!" Smith was heard saying.