Alabama can stop at least one execution
Listen to this articleAlabama is known for many things, lately its Senate candidate who is alleged to be a pedophile and its relish for putting people to death.
According to eyewitnesses at several of their most recent state-sanctioned killings, the prisoners could be seen writhing in pain and most vividly, in the case of Doyle Lee Hamm, repeated jabbing with a needle. To call lethal injection anything other than torture would be morally reprehensible.
Walter Leroy Moody, Jr. is schedule to be tortured to death in Alabama, and he has, through his lawyers, petitioned the governor, Kay Ivey, for clemency.
Nearly 22 years ago Moody was convicted of murdering Judge Robert Smith Vance, Sr. of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Moody did not have counsel at his trial and did not have any witnesses or evidence presented to mitigate his sentence. In addition, the victim was strongly opposed to the death penalty, as Moody’s petition makes clear.
So Governor Ivy can either carry out the state-sanction killing or accommodate the victim’s wishes and commute Moody’s sentence to life in prison.
Below is Moody’s petition. Click to open.
2018.04.16_WalterMoody_ClemencyPetn
Tim Forkes started as a writer on a small alternative newspaper in Milwaukee called the Crazy Shepherd. Writing about entertainment, he had the opportunity to speak with many people in show business, from the very famous to the people struggling to find an audience. In 1992 Tim moved to San Diego, CA and pursued other interests, but remained a freelance writer. Upon arrival in Southern California he was struck by how the elected government officials and business were so intertwined, far more so than he had witnessed in Wisconsin. His interest in entertainment began to wane and the business of politics took its place. He had always been interested in politics, his mother had been a Democratic Party official in Milwaukee, WI, so he sat down to dinner with many of Wisconsin’s greatest political names of the 20th Century: William Proxmire and Clem Zablocki chief among them. As a Marine Corps veteran, Tim has a great interest in veteran affairs, primarily as they relate to the men and women serving and their families. As far as Tim is concerned, the military-industrial complex has enough support. How the men and women who serve are treated is reprehensible, while in the military and especially once they become veterans. Tim would like to help change that.