US man executed for 1996 murder after Supreme Court ruling

Washington, Jan 28: The US state of Alabama executed an man by lethal injection on Thursday, after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state.

The Supreme Court rejected claims by the defense that the man's intellectual disability misled him to accept death by the "torturous" lethal injection rather than an alternative method that had recently been legalized.

A lower court had temporarily blocked the execution after the man said the state did not help him understand the option of being executed via nitrogen hypoxia, said the New York Post.

Matthew Reeves, 43, was put to death at Holman Prison and pronounced dead at 9:24 p.m. local time, state Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.

Execution after 26 years

Reeves was convicted for killing cab driver Willie Johnson Jr. with a shotgun in 1996. He robbed Johnson, who had given him a ride, of $360 (around €320 today) and went to a party afterwards, to celebrate the killing. A witness said Reeves' hands were still stained with blood at the party, where he mimicked Johnson's death convulsions.

Some of Johnson's family witnessed the execution. "After 26 years justice [has] finally been served. Our family can now have some closure," they said in a statement.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement that the execution "is fair, and tonight, justice was rightfully served." She added that the victim was a "good Samaritan lending a helping hand," who was brutally murdered.

Use of lethal injection

In 2018, Alabama death row inmates had a chance to sign a form choosing either lethal injection or nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method. Reeves was one of the inmates who had not filled out the form.

"The immense authority of the Supreme Court should be used to protect its citizens, not to strip them of their rights without explanation," Reeves' attorneys said.

They claimed Reeves, who had rudimentary language skills, did not receive proper explanation of the choice of nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method.

The court overruled a decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had ruled on Wednesday that a district judge didn't use his discretion in ruling that the state couldn't execute Reeves by any method other than nitrogen hypoxia.

Source: DW