2 Jurors Voted to Spare Nathaniel Woods’s Life. Alabama Executed Him

04execution capitol videosixteenbyninejumbo1600

Friday, March 6, 2020

Published March 6, 2020 by NYTimes

Nathaniel Woods never pulled the trigger, but prosecutors said he was just as guilty as the man who did. He had been a mastermind, prosecutors said, luring police officers in Birmingham, Ala., into a house where three of them were killed.

A judge sentenced him to death, but as his execution neared on Thursday, Mr. Woods had a growing number of supporters arguing that there was no evidence showing he had plotted to ambush the officers.

Instead, his supporters claimed that Mr. Woods had been sent to death row based on a case rife with flaws and because of a practice in capital punishment cases that allows a defendant to be condemned without a unanimous jury decision — a practice that has been abandoned by every state but Alabama.

Visit www.nytimes.com to read full article. 

Back