Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a staunch supporter of capital punishment, has commuted the sentence of a death row inmate to life in prison — the first time she’s ever done so.
Robin “Rocky” Myers, 63, an intellectually disabled man, was convicted of murder in the 1991 stabbing of his neighbor Ludie Mae Tucker, 69.
The Republican said there were enough questions about Myer’s guilt that she could not move forward with his execution, which was set for later this year.
“I am not convinced that Mr. Myers is innocent, but I am not so convinced of his guilt as to approve of his execution,” Ivey said in a statement Friday.
Myers will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole — that was the sentence jurors had recommended at his 1994 trial.
The judge, though, decided on death under Alabama’s now-abolished system that let judges override jury sentences.
No physical evidence at the scene connected Myers to the crime, his lawyer had argued.
And Tucker — before she succumbed to her stab wounds at the hospital — had identified her assailant as a short, stocky black man but did not name Myers or a neighbor as the attacker, even though they knew each other.
Supporters believe Myers was a convenient target for law enforcement.
This is the first execution Ivey has stopped since she took office in 2017.
She called it “one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make as governor.”
The ACLU called Myers’ case “a window into so much that’s wrong with the death penalty in this country.”
The last time an Alabama governor commuted a death sentence was in 1999.
