2023-11-17 06:40:25
Published17. November 2023, 07:40
Alabama: Convicted murderer executed by lethal injection 30 years after the crime
49-year-old Casey McWhorter was executed in the US state for a murder he committed as a 19-year-old. The man who confessed regretted the crime for the rest of his life.
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McWhorter spent almost 30 years on death row.
Alabama Department of Corrections
Casey McWhorter (right) with his spiritual advisor Reverend Jeff Hood.
Reverend Jeff Hood
Most US states carry out executions by lethal injection.
AFP
That’s what it’s about
In 1993, Casey McWhorter, who was still considered a minor at the time, shot and killed a friend’s father.
He confessed to the murder and was sentenced to death.
More than 30 years after the crime, he was executed by lethal injection in Atmore, Alabama.
More than 30 years after a man was murdered in Alabama, one of the convicted perpetrators has been executed. 49-year-old Casey McWhorter was pronounced dead on Thursday evening (local time) in a detention center in the southwest of the US state after being given a lethal injection. In his last words, he asked the victim’s family for forgiveness. “I hope you find peace,” he said. He also dealt out his executioner, against whom allegations of domestic violence were made decades ago. “It is not lost on me that a notorious tormentor of women is carrying out this procedure,” McWhorter said before his execution.
The accomplice was the victim’s son
According to prosecutors, a few months after his 18th birthday in the winter of 1993, McWhorter hatched a plan with two younger teenagers to steal cash and items from the home of Edward Lee Williams and then kill him. Williams’ then 15-year-old son was also among his accomplices.
McWhorter and then-16-year-old Daniel Miner went to the victim’s home with guns, according to court documents. When Williams got home, he spotted the teens and reached for the gun Miner was holding. There was a scuffle during which McWhorter reportedly fired the first shot. In total, Williams was hit by eleven bullets. The victim’s son and Miner were sentenced to life in prison and McWhorter was sentenced to death.
Death sentence unconstitutional?
In the end, he spent almost 30 years on death row, making him one of the longest inmates of the 165 death row inmates in Alabama. McWhorter’s lawyers tried in vain to have his execution suspended, citing his age at the time of the robbery-murder. They argued that the death sentence was unconstitutional because under Alabama law a person is not considered an adult until he or she turns 19.
McWhorter himself recently said, looking back, that he was a “confused child” back then. He would advise young people who are going through difficult times to think for a moment before making a fatal mistake like the one he made back then. “If something happens to you that you don’t like at first, take a few seconds to think it through,” he said in an interview with the AP news agency. “Because one bad decision, one stupid mistake, one stupid decision can change your life and the lives of those you care about forever.” McWhorter also maintained that he did not mean to kill Williams. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said McWhorter shot his victim in the head as he lay injured on the ground.
(DPA/trx)
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