Some civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King III, urged Alabama governor Kay Ivey to commute his death sentence. ĭays before Woods's execution, controversy started regarding Woods's sentence and whether he was genuinely guilty of the murders. Later, advocates for Woods claim that this raises questions over whether the drug bust was entirely legitimate. After Cooper was arrested on attempted murder charges after he was involved in a shoot-out, the deal fell apart after the officers allegedly raised the price. According to Cooper, Kerry Spencer and him paid the officers around $1,000 a week in exchange for being allowed to deal and advance notice of buy-and-bust operations of narcotics officers. That man didn't know I was going to shoot anybody just like I didn't know I was going to shoot anybody that day, period." īubba Cooper, an associate of Spencer and Woods and the cousin of Woods, later filed an affidavit in 2012 that said that two of the Birmingham police officers involved were crooked cops. Spencer also stated that "Nate is absolutely innocent. In an open letter, Spencer defended Woods, writing, "Nathaniel Woods doesn't even deserve to be incarcerated, much less executed," taking responsibility for the deaths himself. Unlike most states that allow capital punishment, Alabama does not require death sentence verdicts to be unanimous, and Woods was placed on death row. The jury voted 10–2 in favor of capital punishment. A juror interviewed afterward was surprised by Woods' testimony at sentencing. Woods took the stand in his own defense, but rather than offer contrition or commiserate the sorrow of the victim's family's loss as his lawyers had advised him, he instead claimed he had "no feeling about the officers" and that if they needed to take his blood, "so be it". The prosecution presented a letter that Woods had sent to Chisholm's widow, where Woods maintained that he was innocent and that he "did not give a damn" what she and other family members thought. Woods was convicted of four counts of capital murder while there were only three fatalities, one count of capital murder was added for the murder of more than one person. The prosecution conceded that it was Spencer who had opened fire on the officers, but accused Woods of luring them to their deaths while refusing to cooperate with a valid arrest warrant. Īt Woods's trial, despite the city being majority black, only two black jurors were impaneled on the jury due to peremptory challenges from the prosecution of other black jurors.
Lauren Faraino, a lawyer and later supporter of Woods criticized his original legal team as being weak and ineffective. One of his lawyers misinformed him by saying that he could not be given the death penalty as he did not commit the murders. Before Woods' trial, he turned down a plea deal of 20 to 25 years in prison.
Spencer was sentenced to death, and remains on death row at Holman Correctional Facility awaiting execution as of 2022.
#Dustin higgs wikipedia trial
Kerry Spencer was tried slightly before Woods and was convicted of murder, with his trial finishing in September 2005. That man didn't know I was going to shoot anybody just like I didn't know I was going to shoot anybody that day, period." Trial
Spencer stated Woods was not involved and said, "Nate is absolutely innocent. Spencer and Woods were both charged with the murders, despite Woods never firing a weapon. Woods ran out of the house when he heard the gunshots. The fourth officer, Michael Collins, was injured but survived. Spencer fired shots at all four police officers, killing three out of the four (Chishom, Bennett and Owen). After Woods had surrendered to the officers, Spencer came downstairs to see two officers pointing guns at him. Spencer had an SKS rifle when he heard the officers, while Woods was in the kitchen.
#Dustin higgs wikipedia crack
Four police officers: Harley Chishom III, Charles Bennett, Carlos Owen and Michael Collins, stormed a crack house while Nathaniel Woods and Kerry Spencer were inside. The murders that Nathaniel Woods was convicted of took place on June 17, 2004, in Birmingham, Alabama.
0 kommentar(er)
