Alabama executes second man in two weeks
By Melissa Brown
Montgomery Advertiser
May 31, 2019
Alabama on Thursday executed Christopher Lee Price, condemned for the 1991 murder of Fayette County preacher Bill Lynn.
Price died at 7:31 p.m. by lethal injection. He was the third man killed by Alabama in 2019 and the second execution in a two-week period.
"A man is much more than his worst mistake," Price, who was 19 at the time of Lynn's murder, said when asked for any final words.
Price appeared to grow emotional and unable to speak further when the Holman warden removed the microphone from his gurney. After the mic was removed, he said something that was inaudible from the witness chamber. A Montgomery Advertiser reporter heard the words, "Tell my wife, Diane."
In a statement provided to media after Price's death, the Lynn family thanked friends and loved ones for support "through this long and difficult journey."
"Although this is not really closure, we are praying to finally have peace. Not only for us, but for the one we love and miss every day," the family said.
As the execution began, Price blinked and raised his head twice at about 7:15 p.m. A minute later, Price coughed audibly, five times in quick succession, his lower stomach heaving. His left fist remained clenched throughout the execution.
An officer closed the curtains to the witness chamber at 7:26 p.m.
The Supreme Court on Thursday denied a stay request shortly before Price's execution began. Price sought a stay on the grounds that his federal lawsuit challenging Alabama's lethal injection protocol was slated for trial next month. Alabama officials called the filing "delay tactics."
Price was scheduled to die at 6 p.m. on Thursday, but the procedure did not begin until 7:11 p.m. Anne Hill, ADOC chief of staff, said the execution was delayed at the request of the Alabama Attorney General's office to await the Supreme Court filing.
Alabama in April called off its first planned execution of Price. Awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a lower court's execution stay, the state's clock ran out on Price's death warrant. The Supreme Court ultimately lifted the stay after midnight, but Alabama was forced to seek a new execution date.
"Tonight, the family of Pastor Bill Lynn, who was brutally murdered nearly 30 years ago, has finally seen Lynn’s killer face justice," said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall in an emailed statement. "Christopher Price was put to death at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, fighting until the very end to avoid facing the consequences of his heinous crime. On December 22, 1991, Bill Lynn was wrapping Christmas gifts for his grandchildren when the electricity in his home suddenly went out. Stepping outside to check the power box, Lynn was ambushed, slashed, and stabbed with a sword and knife dozens of times. His killer, Christopher Price, dodged his death sentence for the better part of three decades by employing much the same strategy he has pursued today and tonight: desperately clinging to legal maneuverings to avoid facing his just punishment. In the end, justice got the last word. Tonight, Pastor Lynn’s family can finally begin to seek peace and closure.”
Prison officials said on April 11 Lynn's widow, Bessie Lynn, was prepared to witness Price's execution, along with Bill Lynn's two daughters, two grandsons and a nephew. On Thursday, Alabama officials said a number of Lynn family members planned to witness the execution but declined to detail familial relationships.
Before his planned execution in April, Price requested to be married. He and his fiancée were wed in the Holman Correctional Facility yard on April 10.
Prison officials said Price visited with his wife and a friend on Wednesday. On Thursday, Price met with his wife, his uncle and his attorney. He also made two phone calls to his wife. All three planned to witness his death, an official said before the execution, but ultimately only his attorney attended.
Price declined his breakfast on Thursday but did purchase four pints of ice cream from the prison canteen for his final meal.
Price was 19 when he and a friend approached Lynn outside of his Bazemore home three days before Christmas. The two attacked Lynn while he was checking on the power box. Lynn's wife, Bessie, later testified the two assailants beat her before stealing jewelry and money from their home.
Bill Lynn, who prosecutors say was cut or stabbed 38 times with a sword and dagger, died at a hospital approximately 45 minutes after the attack.
A Fayette County jury in 1993 sentenced Price to death by a vote of 10-2. Price later tried to contest his sentence, alleging his original trial attorney was unprepared for the penalty phase of his trial. Price argued the lawyer failed to offer evidence that the then-teenager was psychologically traumatized following years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of his mother's boyfriends. The Supreme Court declined to review his case in 2013.
Kevin Coleman, Price's accomplice in the attack, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
In a U.S. Supreme Court filing in April, Price's lawyers wrote Alabama's lethal injection protocol would be "excruciatingly painful" for the condemned, "similar to being suffocated and burned at the stake at the same time." Price was primarily concerned with midazolam, considered to be the first drug in a three-drug cocktail. The drug has been the subject of litigation in several states. Critics say the anti-anxiety medication doesn't maintain unconsciousness throughout the execution.
In 2016, witnesses said Ronald Bert Smith, sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of Huntsville convenience store clerk Casey Wilson, gasped and coughed for at least 13 minutes during the 34-minute execution, and clenched his fists while being injected with midazolam.
Two weeks ago, Michael Brandon Samra's chest heaved three times in quick succession after the execution drug cocktail was administered. After, his breathing appeared significantly labored, with his head slightly jerking with each breath for the next minute.
Samra stretched and drew his fingers outward, attempting to raise his left hand against his wrist restraints before curling his fingers inward. He then stilled.
Alabama in February executed Domineque Ray after an 11th-hour U.S. Supreme Court ruling vacated a stay of execution pending a religious rights claim. The court ruled by a narrow majority Ray had waited too late to bring the issue to light.
Ray, a Muslim, had argued Alabama's practice of including a Christian prison chaplain in the execution chamber was in violation of the First Amendment. Ray sought to have his imam present in the death chamber at the time of his death, but the state said it would allow only trained prison employees in the chamber.
In subsequent court filings, Alabama said it has altered its execution protocol to exclude any religious leader, including the Holman prison chaplain, from the death chamber. In Samra and Price's execution, no chaplain was present in the chamber.
Ray's execution and the last-minute delay in Price's scheduled April execution, along with a handful of cases in other states, have highlighted tensions on the nation's highest court. On May 13, the court issued an unprecedented trove of documents, which The Associated Press deemed "internal squabbling" over the death penalty.
On Thursday, media witnesses were initially escorted to the prison shortly before 6 p.m. when officials turned the press van around, returning media witnesses to their off-site holding area. As the press van exited the main prison gate, it met an incoming ambulance with lights and sirens on.
Horton said the ambulance was unrelated to the execution and arrived to transfer an inmate to an off-site medical facility. Horton did not know how the inmate was injured and said it could be Friday before information was made available.
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