Alabama Inmate Ronald Bert Smith Jr. Executed For 1994 Murder Of Store Clerk

A state prison in Alabama executed an inmate Thursday night convicted of killing a convenience store clerk in 1994. The execution was put on hold twice due to U.S. Supreme Court stay orders, which were eventually lifted.

The inmate Ronald Bert Smith Jr., 45, was given lethal injection at the prison in southwest Alabama and was declared dead at 11:05 p.m. local time (12:05 a.m. EST), some 30 minutes after the three-drug lethal dose was given, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Smith was found guilty of capital murder in the November 1994 fatal shooting of Casey Wilson, a store clerk in Huntsville. He was initially recommended life imprisonment by jury who voted 7-5. But Judge Lynwood Smith quashed the recommendation and handed him a death sentence. He had likened Wilson’s killing to an execution and said the store clerk was beaten into submission, and then shot in the head leaving an infant fatherless.

The U.S. Supreme Court justices ordered stay on the execution twice after Smith’s attorneys argued that the judge should not have been able to override the jury’s recommendation. Alabama law allows a judge to supersede jury’s recommendation. In order to halt the execution, five liberal justices were required to vote in favor of the stay but only four agreed, according to Albuquerque Journal.

“The trial court described Smith’s acts as ‘an execution style slaying.’ Tonight, justice was finally served,” Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said in a statement after the execution.

Smith, who became an Eagle Scout at the age of 15, was a son of a NASA contract employee. His life spiraled downward due to alcoholism, according to a clemency request to Alabama’s governor, cited by the Journal. Smith’s final meal involved fried chicken and French fries. His parents and son had visited him before he was put to death.

The inmate had undergone two consciousness tests after he was given the final two of three lethal drugs. Smith moved his arm during the first test and slightly raised his right arm again after the second test, according to the AP. He heaved and coughed 13 minutes into the procedure, the report said, adding that the movements were likely to be debated. However, the state prison commissioner said he did not see any reaction to the tests.

“We do know we followed our protocol. We are absolutely convinced of that,” Alabama Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said Thursday, according to the AP. “There will be an autopsy that will be done on Mr. Smith and if there were any irregularities those will hopefully be shown or born out in the autopsy.”

Smith was the 20th person executed in the U.S. this year and the second in Alabama.