Execution Date Set
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has set May 30th for the execution of 50-year-old Jamie Mills.
Mills will be executed by lethal injection.
He was convicted of capital murder for the 2004 killing of 87-year-old Floyd and 72-year-old Vera Hill in Guin.
Prosecutors said Mills and his wife went to the couple’s home where he savagely beat the couple and stole $140 along with some medicine.
Convicted Child Molester
A convicted child molester has been sentenced to 220 years in federal prison for producing child sexual abuse material and hacking the jumbotron at the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium after the team learned he was a registered sex offender and fired him.
A federal judge in Jacksonville sentenced 53-year-old Samuel Arthur Thompson, of St. Augustine, on Monday, according to court records.
He was convicted in November of producing, receiving and possessing sexual images of children, producing such images while required to register as a sex offender, violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, sending unauthorized damaging commands to a protected computer and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
Thompson was arrested in early 2020 after being deported by the Philippines back to the U.S., officials said.
He had fled to the Southeast Asian country about six months earlier, after the FBI executed a search warrant at his home and seized several of his computers, according to a criminal complaint.
According to court records, Thompson was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Alabama in 1998. Among other things, the conviction required him to register as a sex offender and to report any international travel.
Execution Date
The Alabama Supreme Court recently authorized an execution date for a man convicted in the 2004 slaying of a couple during a robbery.
Justices granted the Alabama attorney general's request to authorize an execution date for 50-year-old Jamie Mills.
Gov. Kay Ivey will set the exact date.
Mills was convicted of capital murder for the 2004 slaying of 87-year-old Floyd Hill and 72-year-old Vera Mills in Guin, a city of about 2,000 people in Marion County.
Prosecutors said Mills and his wife went to the couple's home where he beat the couple and stole money and medications.
False Accusation
An Alabama woman who claimed she was abducted after stopping her car to check on a wandering toddler pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges of giving false information to law enforcement.
News outlets reported Carlee Russell pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident.
She was given a suspended six-month sentence which will allow her to avoid jail.
She was ordered to pay more than $17,000 restitution.
Her two-day disappearance, and her story of being abducted alongside an interstate highway, captivated the nation before police called her story a hoax.
Russell, accompanied to court by her family and defense lawyers, apologized for her actions.
Resentencing Push
Advocates are pushing for legislation that would allow for the resentencing of about 30 Alabama inmates sentenced to death despite a judge's recommendation of a life sentence.
Alabama in 2017 became the last state to abandon the practice of allowing judges to override a jury’s sentence recommendation in death penalty cases.
The change was not retroactive.
Activists held a rally Thursday outside the Alabama Statehouse urging lawmakers to make the judicial override ban retroactive and allow those inmates an opportunity to be resentenced.
The bill is before the House Judiciary Committee. It has yet to receive a vote.
Phenix City Murder Investigation
Phenix City Police have arrested 38-year-old Navansley Vonquez Smith for the murder of Jennifer Marie Anderson in October 2023.
Investigators say on October 27, 2023, at around 1:15 p.m. officers were called to the Brickyard Road near Fontaine Road in reference to a deceased person.
Upon arrival, authorities found the decomposing body of 44-year-old Jennifer Marie Anderson.
The investigation is ongoing.
The Phenix City Police Department is asking the public if you have any information about the case to contact Inv. John Young at (334) 448-2794.
Central Alabama CrimeStoppers is offering a $1,000.00 cash reward for any information that leads to the identification and arrest of the suspect, 334-215-STOP.
