ATMORE, Ala. — An Alabama inmate has won a reprieve from a scheduled execution.
The lethal injection of Willie B. Smith III was called off Thursday when the U.S. Supreme Court maintained an injunction saying he could be executed without his pastor present in chamber. The state prison system said the execution would not proceed given the ruling.
Alabama has maintained that non-prison staff should not be in the room for security reasons. Smith, 51, was sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of 22-year-old Sharma Ruth Johnson in Birmingham.
The Associated Press
