Saturday, March 24, 2012

"The Difference is How We Die"/Fifth Stay for Tommy Arthur

Death Row at Holman Prison


Since Christie Bray Scott's arrival on the female edition of death row in Alabama, Louise Harris has left the exclusive community, having had her sentence commuted to Life Without Parole. The following is a short excerpt from a series written by Kym Klass.

The message that Alicia Smallwood-Brown works to pass on to the five women she ministers to on death row at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women is one that makes them feel inclusive:
We will all die for our sins. The difference is in how we die. The women that Brown ministers to at Tutwiler are in lock-up for 23 hours a day because their crimes were so bad that the courts believed they should die for them. While this is mankind's judgment, the women need to consider a higher one, Brown tells them. "I tell them we are all on death row ... everyone has to die," she said. Brown is Tutwiler's chaplain, and she has ministered to all the women there for almost two years. She entered the prison at a time when the inmates went months without a minister. A few months can seem like a long time when you are in prison, especially when a chaplain is your one outreach. That is especially true for those women on death row, women behind steel doors who desperately needed a connection, and who had been praying for a minister to study the Bible with them. For those five women -- Louise, Shonda, Patricia, Tierra and Christie -- the weekly ministry is part of their lifeline. It is their connection to helping to right wrongs, to prayer, to forgiveness.

Colbert County's Tommy Arthur has again seemingly cheated the death penalty for which he asked upon his conviction for the murder of Troy Wicker of Muscle Shoals. Arthur's fifth execution date has been stayed due to uncertainties concerning the drug cocktail trifecta used in Alabama's lethal injection protocol.

Arthur has spent the majority of the last 30 years behind bars for Wicker's murder. Interestingly, Arthur also has an earlier Felony Murder conviction for the murder of Christie Bray Scott's aunt. It's a small world in some Alabama circles.

Related posts:

Judy Says

Life without Parole

Sherrie Arthur



Shoalanda

2 comments:

  1. The link to the Scott's road to death row is not working.

    Arthur is going to die a natural death I'm afraid. Some folks know how to work the system.

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    Replies
    1. Many thanks. It's working now.

      I agree. Arthur seems to have used his gift for gab to enthrall some simple minded attorneys who have in turn attempted to overturn his convictions. Don't you wonder where he would be if he had used his talents for good?

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