UPDATE: Sept 1, 2021: Willie Smith has been re-scheduled for execution on Oct 21, 2021.

UPDATE: Oct 19, 2021: The Death Penalty Information Center has published this legal status update on the case.

[See operative petition language below.]

Willie Smith was scheduled to be killed for the 1991 murder of Sharma Ruth Johnson, who was the sister of a Birmingham police detective. The issue that stopped the execution was NOT his intellectual disability, but whether he could have his pastor in the room with him when they kill him.  

Smith and his attorneys have been appealing his conviction and asking for clemency due to various claims, including that his original trial lawyers provided ineffective assistance and that he shouldn’t be executed because he is intellectually disabled. Court records indicate a defense team expert estimated his IQ at 64 while a prosecution expert presented it as 72.

Attorneys for Smith have an ongoing lawsuit against the state prison system challenging the lethal injection procedure as unconstitutionally cruel. They also argued Smith’s intellectual disability prevented him from understanding what was at stake when the state gave inmates a short window to select hydrogen hypoxia as their preferred execution method. Because the state does not have in place a protocol for a gas chamber execution (even though it did just contract for the construction of a gas chamber), had Smith elected lethal injection his execution would not be moving forward at this time.

Please sign the petition asking Governor Ivey to do everything within her power to stop this execution, including issuing a stay, and seeking a path to clemency in the case.

Petitions will be delivered on your behalf on an ongoing basis.