Did Alabama just execute an innocent man? Criminal justice advocates say yes. That man was Nathaniel Woods, 43, and he was executed on March 5th lethal injection shortly after 9 pm.
As activist Shaun King tweeted: “This is a modern-day lynching. He broke no laws, at all. Never fired a gun. And surrendered.”
In 2005 the Birmingham man was convicted of being an accomplice to the murder of three police officers.
The three Birmingham police officers — Charles Robert Bennett; Carlos “Curly” Owen and Harley Chisholm III — were killed on June 17, 2004, by Kerry Spencer who opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle when he entered a drug house.
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According to his supporters, Woods did not pull the trigger and should not have been given the death penalty.
“In the days leading up to Woods’ execution, which was briefly stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday night, the hashtag #SaveNate started making the rounds as celebrities, activists and politicians on the state and national level urged Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to grant Woods clemency. He did not pull the trigger on July 17, 2004, they argued, and he had actually surrendered to Birmingham police Officers Harley Alfred Chisholm III, 40, Carlos Winston ‘Curly’ Owen, 58, and Charles Robert Bennett, 33, before they were gunned down,” WSB-TV.
“Woods was put to death amid a storm of appeals and protests from supporters, who noted that Woods did not actually kill the officers; that Woods’ attorneys missed key deadlines in his appeals, and that Spencer — who remains on death row — said Woods was not involved,” USA Today reported.
“We want justice for the officers,” said Woods’ sister Pamela prior to the execution. “We want justice for my brother. It can’t be one-sided or for one group of people. You have to have justice for everyone. We want justice for Nathaniel.”
Woods had no final words before the execution but he did hold his right index finger out throughout the execution, an apparent sign of his Islamic faith.
