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Ex parte Thomas Douglas Arthur.
ORDER
The State of Alabama having filed a motion to set an execution date, and the same having been submitted and duly considered by the Court, it is considered that the motion to set an execution date is due to be granted.
IT IS NOW ORDERED that Thursday, May 25, 2017, be fixed as the date for the execution of the convict, Thomas Douglas Arthur who is now confined in the William C. Holman Unit of the prison system at Atmore, Alabama.
IT IS, THEREFORE, ORDERED that the Warden of the William C. Holman Unit of the prison system at Atmore in Escambia County, Alabama, execute the order, judgment and sentence of law on May 25, 2017, in the William C. Holman Unit of the prison system, by the means provided by law, causing the death of such convict.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Marshal of this Court, or his designee, shall deliver, within five (5) days from this date, a certified copy of this order to the Warden of the William C. Holman Unit of the prison system at Atmore, in Escambia County, Alabama, and make due return thereon to this Court.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Clerk of this Court shall transmit forthwith a certified copy of this order to the following: the Governor of Alabama, the Clerk of the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Attorney General of Alabama, the Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, the attorney of record for Thomas Douglas Arthur, the Clerk of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, the Clerk of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the Clerk of the United States Supreme Court, and the Cleric of the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama, electronically or by United States mail, postage prepaid.
* * * * * * * * *
I, Julia Jordan Weller, Clerk of the Supreme Court of Alabama, do hereby certify the foregoing is a full, true and correct copy of the judgment and order of the Supreme Court of Alabama directing the execution of the death sentence of Thomas Douglas Arthur as the same appears of record in this Court.
Given under my hand and the seal of this Court on this date, April 4, 2017.
Julia Jordan Weller Clerk Supreme Court of Alabama
In 1977, Thomas Douglas Arthur was convicted of second-degree murder for killing the sister of his common-law wife by shooting her in the right eye. On February 1, 1982, while serving a sentence of life imprisonment and participating in work release for that offense, Arthur brutally murdered his girlfriend's husband, Troy Wicker, by shooting him in the right eye. That was over 35 years ago. Between 1982 and 1992, Arthur was tried by three separate juries for the murder of Troy Wicker; each trial resulted in a conviction and a sentence of death.1 Since 1992, Arthur has continuously used the state and federal courts to challenge his death sentence and has had his scheduled execution stayed seven times, i.e., he has filed petitions for postconviction relief pursuant to Rule 32, Ala. R. Crim. P.; petitions for the writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254; and lawsuits under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In 2007, Arthur filed his first two § 1983 lawsuits challenging this State's three-drug lethal-injection protocol as being in violation of the prohibition in the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution against cruel and unusual punishment. In 2011, Arthur filed his latest § 1983 lawsuit, specifically challenging Alabama's use of midazolam in its three-drug lethal-injection protocol as being in violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Five years later, this latest lawsuit ended with a judgment in favor of the State; the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed that judgment on November 2, 2016. On February 21, 2017, the United States Supreme Court denied Arthur's petition for a writ of certiorari in the § 198 3 action. Arthur v. Dunn, 580 U.S. __, 137 S.Ct. 725 (2017).
I agree with this Court's order setting Arthur's eighth execution date. The citizens of the State of Alabama, through their elected representatives, long ago stated their policy, both definite and clear, that certain acts committed by individuals disqualified them from continuing their lives in a civilized society and that the ultimate price must be paid for the commission of those acts. I feel compelled to note that, despite the fact that the United States Supreme Court has upheld the use of lethal-injection practices as being a proper method of execution, see Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35 (2008), Arthur has continued to use the courts as pawns in challenging the manner of his execution. I realize that Arthur's ultimate conviction was obtained following three trials, which resulted in his final and lawful conviction. I am acutely aware of the multiple and necessary steps in the appeals process and postconviction-relief process when the State of Alabama and its citizenry are demanding the ultimate price from a capital-murder defendant. I am also aware that multiple settings of an execution date are no doubt extremely upsetting and stressful for the defendant and the defendant's family (even though setting and then staying the execution date has become almost commonplace for Arthur because of his challenges to the manner of execution).2 However, utterly lost in Arthur's numerous challenges over the past 35 years are the family and friends of Troy Wicker. I recognize that it is not the mandate of this Court, nor is it even possible for this Court, to bring “closure,” as that term is commonly used, to Troy Wicker's family and friends at this late date. However, this Court, and the American criminal justice system, can bring “legal” closure and finality when Arthur has had the full benefit of the protections of the United States Constitution and the Alabama Constitution.
May God have mercy on both Thomas Douglas Arthur and those from whom the victim, Troy Wicker, was so brutally taken.
FOOTNOTES
1. The conviction and sentence of death imposed following the first trial were reversed by this Court, 472 So. 2d 665 (Ala. 1985); the conviction and sentence imposed following the second trial were reversed by the Court of Criminal Appeals, 575 So. 2d 1165 (Ala. Crim. App. 1990); the conviction and sentence imposed following the third trial were affirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals, 711 So. 2d 1031 (Ala. Crim. App. 1996), and by this Court, 711 So. 2d 1097 (Ala. 1997).
2. The mortality tables set out by the Alabama Department of Insurance show that someone who is 75 years of age, as is Arthur, should have, on average, 9.4 more years left on this Earth. At this point, I posit, only partially facetiously, that perhaps the fairest, least cruel, and most humane eighth execution date for Arthur and perhaps for the forgotten victim's friends and family (at least those still living) might be a date sometime in 2026, so Arthur has the statistical maximum time left on his mortality table in which to continue his challenges.
Stuart, Parker, Shaw, Main, and Bryan, JJ., concur. Bolin, J., concurs specially. Murdock, J., dissents. Wise, J., recuses.
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Docket No: 1951985
Decided: April 04, 2017
Court: Supreme Court of Alabama.
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