By
Associated Press
.
Published: Mon, November 26, 2007 - 10:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to allowan Alabama death row inmate to try to prove his innocence through
DNA testing.
Thomas Arthur, now 65, was sentenced to die for the 1982 killing
of Troy Wicker of Muscle Shoals. His execution has been set for
December 6th, but is expected to be delayed because of a pending
Supreme Court case involving lethal injections.
The victim's wife, Judy Wicker, testified at Arthur's trial that
she had sex with him and paid him $10,000 to kill her husband. The
victim was shot in the face as he lay in bed. Earlier at her own
trial, Wicker testified that a man burglarizing her home raped her,
knocked her unconscious and then shot her husband. She was
convicted as an accomplice and was released after serving 10 years
of a life sentence.
In April, Arthur's lawyers sued the state claiming that the
inmate was being deprived of his rights and was entitled to DNA
testing of critical pieces of physical evidence aimed at showing
that someone other than Arthur committed the murder.
Arthur filed his claim five days before the state of Alabama
moved to set an execution date.
It was Arthur's second execution date. He came within three days
of execution in 2001.
The case is Arthur v. King, 07-397.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Thomas Arthur Execution On Hold
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In answer to Wayne’s question above…This state steadfastly refuses to do DNA testing BECAUSE THEY ARE AFRAID THEY ARE WRONG. They would THEN have to really get out and search for the real killer, or killers. Wouldn’t that be something! In the state of Alabama, prosecutors CANNOT be wrong…they must be right 100 per cent of the time…no margin for error there.