55 years on...has there really been any progression from the Civil Rights Movement?

The impending execution of African American inmate Nathaniel Williams in Alabama once again highlights the social rights issues within the United States, having been accused of shooting 3 white police officers dead, despite not pulling the trigger. He was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 pm on Thursday March 5th 2020.

55 years from when Martin Luther King led the powerful Civil Rights March in Alabama, his son pleaded with the Governor to delay the execution. It was denied. This is despite his co-accused Kerry Spencer confessing to acting alone in the shooting of Carlos Owen, Harley A. Chisolm III and Charles A. Bennett in Birmingham, Alabama in 2004. I believe it is important to note that Governor Ivey is a white female American, and ignored the pleas from a powerful and influential individual in Martin Luther King III, as he continues to fight the injustices still faced today, years on from when his father and his supporters were beaten by local authorities for attempting to implement societal changes that impact on the lives of African Americans.

Martin Luther King (second from left) leading the civil rights march in 1955.

This case, as we so often see, comes with a number of flaws. As Nathaniel is set to become the 67th person to be executed since Alabama reinstated the death penalty in 1976, being an accomplice to a murder is punishable by death. Is it fair to be killed when one has not killed?

It should also be noted that the jury were not unanimous in their verdict. Is this punishment therefore fair and just on a crime he did not commit? Perhaps this extends beyond the issue of race, and highlights that there is an extreme lack in the criminal justice system for what is right.

The circumstances surrounding the shootings are acknowledged by the Prosecutors, however they maintain that Woods remains at fault, despite not holding the gun. Police concur that it was Spencer that was holding the gun when they arrived on the scene, however it was Woods that “lured the officers into a corner”. Regardless of where he led the officers, does that constitute a punishable offence by death?

Nathaniel Wood

Kerry Spencer

Spencer had acted in self defence, alleging the officers had pointed a gun in his face. It was a knee jerk reaction, supported by his Defence team, even confessing in his police interview hours later that Woods had not involvement in the shooting. So I ask why an execution date for Spencer has yet to be determined? Both men were living in the premises at the time, and the officers were engaging in a routine visit in search of their housemate Tryan “Bubba” Cooper who dealt drugs, and the three white policemen were in search of a confrontation.

This case has been marred by corruption throughout its proceedings. It has been alleged that the Prosecution witnesses were coached by a “memory expert” and one was intimidated by threatening to remove her child should she not wish to testify.

Despite public support for Nathaniel Woods from the likes of Rapper T.I and Kim Kardashian, the fight for justice continues to rage. Whilst it is not known what will happen, King declared to the media “if a person is innocent they should not be killed in this country. People have been killed for doing nothing. And in this context, if that is the prospect, we ought to at least go through the facts, go through the information , give the system the opportunity to work if it did not work.”

At 5.30pm Thursday evening, the Supreme Court granted a stay for the execution, half an hour before it was scheduled to be carried out. It was later overturned by the Governor, and Woods was executed by lethal injection later that evening.

This stems from the enactment of a bill signed by Governor Ivey in 2017, banishing judges from their discretion to override non-unanimous jury verdicts with a death penalty. This effectively violates the Sixth Amendment that guarantees criminal defendants the right to a jury finding. As the trial took place prior to 2017, the judges decision in recommending the death penalty unfortunately did not save the life of Nathaniel Woods.

Governor Ivey