An Alabama death row inmate lost a bid Tuesday to block his scheduled execution, just days after failing to overturn his conviction for using a tire iron, ball-peen hammer and machete to fatally bludgeon an elderly couple in 2004.
The latest ruling against Jamie Ray Mills, 50, came less than two weeks before he's scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the grisly murders of Floyd and Vera Hill during a robbery at their home in the tiny city of Guin, about 80 miles northwest of Birmingham.
Floyd Hill, 87, died at the scene of the June 24, 2004, attack but Vera Hill, 72, survived until the following Sept. 12, when she died in hospice of complications from the head trauma she suffered.
In a 59-page decision, U.S. District Judge Emily Marks refused to grant a preliminary injunction to prevent Mills' execution, saying he "inexcusably delayed" filing his motion until "fewer than four weeks before the beginning of his May 30, 2024 execution timeframe."
In March, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey told state Corrections Commissioner John Hamm she had "no current plans to grant clemency in this case" and directed him to have Mills executed between 12 a.m. on May 30 and 6 a.m. on May 31, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.
Marks also said Mills "failed to show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits" of his claim that being restrained on a gurney "for hours" before his execution would constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
Mills' ruling came after another federal judge, L. Scott Coogler, denied Mills' motion to toss the jury verdict against him on grounds that his common law wife and accomplice, JoAnn Mills, testified against him after secretly striking a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
Coogler said Mills has unsuccessfully raised that claim "many times since his 2007 trial" but had yet to produce any "documentary evidence."
In a 23-page decision, Coogler also wrote that "JoAnn's testimony was but one part of the overwhelming evidence against Mills, including a second witness linking his vehicle to the crime scene, as well as the fact that a pair of his work pants (with his name on the inside tab) stained with the victims' blood, murder weapons containing the victims' DNA, and a concrete block were found in his trunk."
Mills' lawyers from the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, didn't immediately return requests for comment on Tuesday.
