AMERICAN KILLERS. Volume 1. Alabama

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the internet and other reference works and

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may have been exaggerated or embellished.

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                                ISBN 9781739565732

AMERICAN KILLERS

        Volume 1. ALABAMA

A majority of American states have the death penalty, but far fewer use it regularly. As of the date of publishing this book, the death penalty is authorized by 27 states and the federal government – including the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. military – and prohibited in 23 states and the District of Columbia. But even in many of the jurisdictions that authorize the death penalty, executions are rare: 13 of these states, along with the U.S. military, haven’t carried out an execution in over ten years, this includes three states –  California, Oregon and Pennsylvania  – where governors have imposed formal moratoriums on executions.

Authors note.. Not every killer in the State is included as some murders are pretty basic accidents or arguments that got out of control.  I have tried to keep to those with unusual or interesting back grounds that led to the crime so not every convicted killer will be in the book.  I am always pleased to hear from readers on my Facebook page. I don’t have a website, it is too time consuming.

                  JOSEPH DEWEY AKIN

Born 1956 – March 1998 pleaded guilty to manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years.

Akin worked as a nurse at Cooper Green Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama and was first tried in September 1992 for the murder of Robert Price, a quadriplegic, but injecting him with a lethal amount of lidocaine. Akin was suspected of foul play in nearly a hundred other deaths over the previous decade in the various hospitals where he had worked. When the management of these hospitals attention had later been drawn to the fact that Akin was always present at these deaths they had refused to investigate for fear of litigation.

In the Robert Price case the amount of lidocaine found in Price’s body was twice a lethal dose and four times more than would usually be prescribed as a medical dose. Atkin’s defence lawyer at his trial in 1992 pointed out that the initial cardiac arrest was caused by a blocked ventilation tube with no evidence Akin had tampered with that tube. He also pointed out that the lidocaine was administered by the Code Blue emergency team as they tried to save Price’s life. The drug had originally been invoiced to Price’s family which meant it had been ordered by the hospital for his treatment and not brought in by Akin.

Akin was found guilty of murder but this conviction was overturned and a retrial ordered which failed to reach a verdict. A third trial was due in March 1998 but Akin changed his plea to guilty of manslaughter before it began and was found guilty on that charge and sentenced to 15 years.

The suspicious deaths at other hospitals where Akin worked lay open on the police files and several payouts have been made in the civil court by Akin’s insurance company and by some of those hospitals to relatives of his suspected victims under threat of court proceedings.

                TOMMY ARTHUR

Born 1942- sentenced to death December 5th 1991. Executed May 26th 2017.

This is a strange case. On February 1st 1982 Arthur was found guilty of killing Troy Wicker who he shot through the right eye. At the time Arthur was having an affair with Judy Wicker, the victim’s wife, who had colluded with other relatives to hire Arthur for $10,000 to kill Troy. After the killings Judy told the police that her husband had been killed by an Afro-American burglar who had beaten and raped her. This was Arthur who had blacked his face and wore a wig in collusion with Judy to confuse any witnesses. Both he and Judy were seen together after the murder as he made his getaway. Arthur was arrested and charged with murder and found guilty. The conviction was overturned on appeal in 1983.

Arthur had a previous conviction from 1977 for killing his sister-in-law, again by shooting her through the eye. His conviction was postponed for many years after his lawyers filed motions that the Alabama method of execution by lethal injection was cruel as it would cause Arthur severe pain due to his heart condition. You couldn’t make it up could you? The court had no alternative but to postpone Arthur’s execution as his lawyers posted appeal after appeal and each wound its slow way through the various courts. It was only after the Supreme Court lifted the stay of execution in 2017, after the state governor had ordered a new drug that was designed to render the inmate unconscious before the lethal dose was administered, that Arthur was given the lethal execution drugs and was pronounced dead at 12.15am on May 26th 2017.

                  BRIAN K BALDWIN

Born June 16th 1958 – executed in Alabama June 18th 1999.

Baldwin is typical of the cases involving racial prejudice and injustice that occurred in Alabama in the late 1900’s. He was accused aged 18, together with accomplice Edward Horsley, of the murder of 16 year old Naomi Rolon after they fled a North Carolina prison camp in March 1977, stole a car and abducted Naomi who was on her way to pay a hospital visit to her father. She was choked, stabbed and sexually assaulted as they drove to Alabama before killing her with an axe.

Several inconstancies in the prosecution’s actions and statements were placed before the Alabama Governor Don Seigleman who said he was deeply troubled by them but refused to give clemency on the execution day. The defence lawyers claimed Baldwin was beaten into confessing in a state dominated by white lawmen and officers. Baldwin was refused his right to a fair and impartial trial, his right to be free from torture and his right to be free from racial discrimination. The defence noted the following issues;

After his arrest Baldwin’s parents were not informed of his whereabouts until after he had been convicted of capital murder.

Baldwin was repeatedly beaten and prodded by an electric ‘cattle-prodder’ until he signed a confession.

This confession did not originally provide an accurate description of the murder or of the weapon used. This confession was later altered to fit.

The trial lasted just one and a half days including jury selection where all coloured potential jurors were rejected by the prosecution, jury deliberation and sentencing.

Baldwin’s attorney failed to conduct a pre-trial investigation, failed to prepare Baldwin to testify, failed to call any defence witnesses, failed to produce any exculpatory forensic evidence and failed to raise objections to the prosecution’s improper actions and allegations.

Forensic evidence that pointed towards Baldwin being innocent was not introduced at the trial.

Baldwin was in the courtroom in handcuffs during jury selection.

The prosecution mentioned sexual assault by Baldwin on many occasions although it was not on the charge sheet.

After the trial the state withheld the record of the trial and claimed to have lost key evidence from Baldwin’s defence which hindered the setting up of an appeal.

Baldwin’s co-defendant confessed to the crime and exonerated Baldwin.

In a county where 46% of the population were African-Americans it was an all white jury that convicted Baldwin.

An Alabama court later examined the trial and concluded that the prosecutor and judge had shown ‘deliberate racial bias and discrimination’.

Co-defendant Edward Horsley, a white man, was not convicted although forensic evidence showed none of Rolon’s blood on Baldwin’s clothes but much of it on Horsley’s. The axe used in the killing was struck from the left, Horsley was left handed, Baldwin was right handed. Horsley had driven off with Rolon leaving Baldwin alone. Eleven years after Baldwin had been executed Horsley confessed to killing Naomi Rolon alone and stated that Baldwin knew nothing about the murder until Rolon’s body had been found.

It beggars belief that the initial appeal alleging improper court procedure and racism was heard by the same judge that had convicted Baldwin and against whom some of those allegations were being made! He, not surprisingly, refused the appeal.

Brian Baldwin was sat, strapped in the electric chair for one hour whilst his lawyers made unsuccessful last ditch appeals for clemency and a retrial to the Alabama Governor who refused them. The switch was then thrown.

            THOMAS E BLANTON Jr

Born 1939 – sentenced to life in prison May 2nd, 2001.

On the morning of September 15th 1963, a bomb exploded in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama killing four coloured girls who were changing into their choir robes in the basement and injuring twenty other people. The church was an important part of the local African-American community and a meeting place for civil rights activists both black and white. Martin Luther King Jr was just one of many leaders who had visited and spoken at the church meetings.

Bomb and fire threats had been made against the church in the past and precautions were always taken, but this time no threat had been received. The blast blew a hole in the east side of the church and brought down ceilings and walls. The four girl’s bodies were found as the local community dug through the debris in the search for survivors.

The FBI led the investigation and in 1965 named Robert Chambliss, Bobby Cherry, Herman Cash and Thomas E Blanton Jr as the bombers, all were known members of the Ku Klus Klan. The Birmingham FBI wanted to prosecute but did not. Years later it was revealed in FBI papers that Edgar J Hoover had blocked the prosecutions and by 1968 no charges had been brought and the case was dropped and closed.

In 1971 public unease and continued agitation at the lack of action forced the Alabama Attorney General William Baxley to reopen the case. It plodded on slowly through the courts until on November 18th 1977 Robert Chambliss was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1988 evidence was sent to the FBI by way of an anonymous tip off that Herman Cash was one of the bombers but he died in 1994 before a case could be heard against him. On May 17th 2000 Thomas E. Blankton Jr and Bobby Cherry were charged with the murder of the four girls. Cherry’s trial was postponed when the judge ruled that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial. Another judge challenged this and Cherry was found competent and on May 22nd 2002 he was found guilty of the murders and sentenced to life in prison.

Previously on May 17th 2000 Thomas E. Blanton Jr was charged with the murders and on May 1st the following year, 2001, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. This conviction rested mainly on secret FBI recordings of conversations between Blanton and his wife where he discussed being at a Klan meeting where the bombing was planned and the bomb made. In another he was recorded talking to a person who he was unaware was a FBI informant and admitting his part in the bombing. Those taped conversations were played to the jury in court and sealed his guilt. Finally justice had been served for the four girls.

            WILLIAM GLENN BOYD

Born January 6th 1966 – executed by lethal injection March 31st 2011

William Boyd together with his friend, Robert Milstead broke into the home of Fred Blackmon, 76, and his wife Evelyn, 41, on the afternoon of March 26th 1986 and tied them up before convincing them that they had kidnapped Evelyn’s daughter and would kill her unless the Blackmon’s paid a ransom.

Fred was accompanied to his bank at gunpoint and withdrew $5,000. Both he and his wife were then driven to some local woods on the pretext of the daughter being there and both were beaten and then shot dead. Boyd and Milstead left the scene only to return later to dispose of the bodies. A police search was made after the Blackmons were reported missing by relatives and both Boyd and Milstead were identified by witnesses and the bank staff as being with the Blackmons on the last day they were seen. Forensic evidence at the Blackmon’s home was also linked to the pair who were arrested on suspicion of kidnap and murder.

Robert Milstead struck a plea deal in exchange for his testimony incriminating Boyd and led the police to the bodies. Fred’s body was found inside the boot of his car which had been driven off the bank into the Coosa River. Evelyn’s body was also recovered from the river inside a metal drum. Her body had been roughly dismembered by an axe to make it fit inside the drum.

Boyd was convicted of the murder and given the death sentence by the judge who overruled the jury’s request for clemency and a life sentence. Milstead received a life sentence without parole as part of his plea deal which the judge could not overrule.

A last minute appeal for a retrial by Boyd’s attorneys citing that the judge had no legal right to overrule the jury’s request for leniency was denied and Boyd was 45 when he was given a lethal injection on March 31st, 2011, twenty five years after the double murders. Death row moves very slowly as appeals up the chain of the court system in the USA overwhelmed it and it hardly moves at all.

            DANNY JOE BRADLEY

Born 7th September 1959 – executed February 12th 2009 by lethal injection.

On January 24th 1983, twelve year old