Sibley files appeal seeking to stop execution
Condemned murderer George Sibley, who once joined
his common-law wife in claiming the courts had no legal jurisdiction
in their death penalty case, has filed an appeal to stop his
execution scheduled for Thursday.
Sibley, 60, is scheduled to become the 1st person
in Alabama executed by lethal injection. His common-law wife, Lynda
Lyon Block, 54, was executed on May 10, possibly the last person to
die in Alabama's electric chair. Sibley and Block were sentenced to
death for the 1993 killing of Opelika police officer Roger Motley
Jr. in a burst of gunfire in a shopping center parking lot. Block
and Sibley, who decried government controls over individuals and
renounced their U.S. citizenship, were on the run at the time to
avoid being sentenced in the stabbing of Block's former husband in
Orlando, Fla. Sibley and Block declined for years to file appeals in
their case, claiming the courts were corrupt and illegal. But Sibley
in recent days filed an appeal in federal court in Montgomery asking
for a stay, his attorney said Monday. U.S. District Judge Harold
Albritton has scheduled a hearing on the request for 10 a.m.
Tuesday.
Montgomery attorney Bryan Stevenson said he filed
the appeal at Sibley's request. Stevenson said the appeal "is based
on issues relating to the fairness of his conviction and death
sentence." Assistant Attorney General Beth Hughes said the state
would fight the request for a stay, arguing that Sibley has missed
the deadline for filing appeals. A Web site operated by supporters
of Sibley and Block said Monday that a letter was being sent to Gov.
Don Siegelman on Sibley's behalf asking the governor to stop the
execution. The governor's office had not received the request
Monday, press secretary Mike Kanarick said.
The Alabama legislature in April voted to change
the state's primary means of execution to lethal injection, although
death row inmates can still choose to die in the electric chair.
Prison officials said Sibley declined to make a choice and therefore
is scheduled to die by lethal injection. Prisons spokesman Brian
Corbett said Monday that preparations are complete at Holman prison
near Atmore to carry out the state's first execution by lethal
injection.
"We are ready to go. The chamber has been ready for
about a month now," Corbett said. Unless a stay is ordered, Sibley
is expected to be moved into a holding cell near the execution
chamber Tuesday, Corbett said.
(source: Associated Press)
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