The Supreme Court has denied a request to stay the execution of an Alabama inmate scheduled to receive the death penalty on Thursday evening.
Earlier on Thursday, Justice Clarence Thomas had issued a stay of execution, temporarily stopping Nathaniel Woods from dying by lethal injection. The court then vacated Thomas’s order, allowing the execution to proceed as planned.
Nathaniel Woods was scheduled for execution at 6 p.m. local time on Thursday. Increasingly desperate supporters of Woods begged GOP Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to grant the convict a reprieve. Woods supporters said that a confession by Kerry Spencer, Woods’s alleged accomplice in the murder of three police officers, supported Woods’s claim of innocence. Spencer testified that he killed the officers and that Woods was not directly involved.
A jury convicted Woods in 2005 of killing three police officers and shooting one more at a suspected crack house in Birmingham on June 17, 2004. The jury voted 10-2 to recommend the death penalty for Woods.
Woods had prepared for his final moments, making calls to his family and friends and ordering his last meal. He took just one bite of chicken before heading to the execution chamber.
UPDATE: This piece has been updated to reflect that the Supreme Court denied the stay of execution, vacating Thomas’s earlier ruling.
