A federal appeals court has rejected two defense motions seeking to delay the execution of an Alabama death row inmate by 6 a.m. Friday.
The decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Criminal Appeals means the execution of Jamie Ray Mills can proceed on Thursday, USA Today reports, but the defense can still seek a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state is using lethal injection instead of nitrogen hypoxia, which was used in the January execution of Kenneth Smith. That was the first time that method was used and it remains controversial.
Mills, 50, is sentenced to die for the grisly murders of Floyd and Vera Hill during a 2004 robbery at their home in the tiny city of Guin, about 80 miles northwest of Birmingham.
He used a tire iron, ball-peen hammer and machete to fatally bludgeon the elderly couple.
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.
The Equal Justice Initiative claims that new evidence shows that prosecutors obtained his conviction illegally by falsely telling the judge and jury they had not made a deal with the State's star witness.
In 2005, Jamie Mills, his wife, JoAnn Mills, and Benjie Howe were arrested and charged with capital murder in the killings.
Howe was found with one victim's medicine and a large amount of cash when he was arrested.
Jamie and JoAnn Mills were arrested after physical evidence from the crime, including the murder weapons, was found in the trunk of their car.
JoAnn Mills told police in two different statements that she suspected Howe had planted the weapons in their car and that he had brought stolen items to their home in the past.
The Equal Justice Initiative alleges police falsely claimed that DNA evidence on the murder weapons matched Jamie Mills. Only after that, JoAnn gave a third statement implicating her husband.
Joann Mills was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
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.
