Whitey Ford
01-28-2022, 03:29 AM
Alabama man executed for 1996 murder following Supreme Court ruling
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Alabama on Thursday executed an inmate convicted of murdering a driver that gave him a ride in 1996.
According to a defense expert, Reeves read at a first-grade level and had the language skills of a 4-year-old.
He was executed at 9:24 p.m. local time at the Holman Prison on Thursday, according to the Alabama Attorney General.
Reeves was sentenced to death for shooting and killing Willie Johnson with a shotgun after he had picked up Reeves and others on the side of a rural highway in 1996 when Reeves was 18 years old. He allegedly went to a party afterward where he danced and reenacted the killing in celebration while Johnson’s blood was still on his hands.
https://nypost.com/2022/01/27/alabama-man-matthew-reeves-executed-for-1996-murder-following-supreme-court-ruling/
Oklahoma executes man for 2001 slayings of 2 hotel workers
18717
McALESTER, Okla. -- Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for the brutal slayings of two hotel workers during a robbery in 2001.
Donald Grant, 46, received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was declared dead at 10:16 a.m. It was the first execution in the U.S. in 2022 and the third in Oklahoma since the state resumed lethal injections in October following a nearly seven-year hiatus.
“Yo, God, I got this," Grant said while lying strapped to the gurney, delivering his disjointed last words for two minutes. “No medication. I didn't take nothing. Brooklyn for life."
A few minutes later, Grant's eyelids began to droop and he appeared to be sleeping. After a doctor entered the room to conduct a consciousness check, rubbing his sternum and calling his name, Grant could be heard snoring as a prison official declared him unconscious at 10:09 p.m. He appeared to stop breathing about two minutes later.
Shirl Pilcher, the sister of one of Grant's victims, Brenda McElyea, said her family felt that justice had been served.
During a clemency hearing in November, Donald Grant admitted killing Brenda McElyea and Felicia Suzette Smith so that there would be no witnesses to his robbery of the Del City hotel. Court records show both women were shot and stabbed, and Smith was also bludgeoned. Prosecutors say both women also begged him to spare their lives before he killed them.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/oklahoma-prepares-execute-man-2001-hotel-slayings-82502532
18716
Alabama on Thursday executed an inmate convicted of murdering a driver that gave him a ride in 1996.
According to a defense expert, Reeves read at a first-grade level and had the language skills of a 4-year-old.
He was executed at 9:24 p.m. local time at the Holman Prison on Thursday, according to the Alabama Attorney General.
Reeves was sentenced to death for shooting and killing Willie Johnson with a shotgun after he had picked up Reeves and others on the side of a rural highway in 1996 when Reeves was 18 years old. He allegedly went to a party afterward where he danced and reenacted the killing in celebration while Johnson’s blood was still on his hands.
https://nypost.com/2022/01/27/alabama-man-matthew-reeves-executed-for-1996-murder-following-supreme-court-ruling/
Oklahoma executes man for 2001 slayings of 2 hotel workers
18717
McALESTER, Okla. -- Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for the brutal slayings of two hotel workers during a robbery in 2001.
Donald Grant, 46, received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was declared dead at 10:16 a.m. It was the first execution in the U.S. in 2022 and the third in Oklahoma since the state resumed lethal injections in October following a nearly seven-year hiatus.
“Yo, God, I got this," Grant said while lying strapped to the gurney, delivering his disjointed last words for two minutes. “No medication. I didn't take nothing. Brooklyn for life."
A few minutes later, Grant's eyelids began to droop and he appeared to be sleeping. After a doctor entered the room to conduct a consciousness check, rubbing his sternum and calling his name, Grant could be heard snoring as a prison official declared him unconscious at 10:09 p.m. He appeared to stop breathing about two minutes later.
Shirl Pilcher, the sister of one of Grant's victims, Brenda McElyea, said her family felt that justice had been served.
During a clemency hearing in November, Donald Grant admitted killing Brenda McElyea and Felicia Suzette Smith so that there would be no witnesses to his robbery of the Del City hotel. Court records show both women were shot and stabbed, and Smith was also bludgeoned. Prosecutors say both women also begged him to spare their lives before he killed them.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/oklahoma-prepares-execute-man-2001-hotel-slayings-82502532