Arthur still fights system after 25 years

After months of an exhaustive murder investigation that started with a lie from one of the culprits and evolved into the uncovered truth, authorities finally had the information to arrest the man who has come to be known as one of the most notorious criminals in the history of the Shoals.

Investigators also knew exactly where that man -- Tommy Arthur -- could be found: the Decatur Work Release Center.

Local authorities had Arthur transferred to the Morgan County Jail, where he officially was arrested on the grand jury indictment for the murder-for-hire slaying of 35-year-old Troy Wicker.

Arthur would be found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death.

Little did authorities realize at the time, Arthur's death sentence would not be carried out to this day -- 25 years to the day after that April 29, 2007, arrest.

Arthur has spent a quarter of a century insisting upon his innocence and using the judicial system to his advantage, even to the point where he requested the death penalty in order to gain automatic appeals and better access to law books.

While waiting for a retrial, Arthur broke out of the Colbert County Jail, shooting a jailer in the process. While on the run, he was accused of robbing a bank.

And he has been screaming ever since being captured that he is a victim of the system and has held firm in his belief that one day he will be freed.

Those who have had contact with Arthur say the unfolding saga serves as a prime example of the manipulative, cunning nature of the man.

"He was a piece of work, a real piece of work," said James "Jap" Patton, who was the Colbert County district attorney who prosecuted Arthur for what would turn out to be the first of three trials in the same case.

"He was a legend in his own mind," Patton said.

"Tommy had a real good personality," said Robert Hall, a retired Muscle Shoals police investigator who was the lead investigator in the 1982 murder case.

"He would have been a real good salesman, but he just chose to go the other way."

Hall believes Arthur used that personality as a tool of crime.

"I'm not upholding what he did, don't get me wrong," Hall said. "If you go back through the history of people on the wrong side of the law, in a whole lot of cases like serial killers, that cunning, likeable personality is how they got away with it for so long."

Through the years, Arthur has gone through several lawyers, firing several along the way. He even represented himself at times.

He is still using the system to at least delay his pending date with death.

His latest attorney, Suhana Han, of New York City, filed a complaint April 12 demanding that evidence collected in the case 25 years ago be submitted for DNA testing. If the motion is denied, she plans to appeal to the 11th Judicial Court and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court.

The complaint is another in the legal maneuvering that has taken place fore more than two decades. The latest effort comes on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court seemingly denying the final appeal in the process.

Han insists the complaint filed in federal court in Alabama is not another delay tactic.

"What's driving this is the hope that someone will realize Mr. Arthur has been denied justice," Han said.

Arthur's daughter, Sherrie Arthur, admits now that she initially was "kind of glad" when her father was found guilty.

"You know, he was not the greatest father in the world, but after reviewing the facts, I really question whether he is guilty," Sherrie Arthur said. "All I can do is look at the facts. I can't live in a dream world."

She said those facts, even after 25 years, have not all come to light. For example, she said there is DNA evidence that has not been revealed to the defense.

The victim's wife, Judy Wicker, also was convicted in the murder, sentenced to life in prison and has been released after serving 10 years.

Reports indicate Wicker initially claimed a black man broke into their home, raped her and killed her husband.

She later testified against Arthur and said she had sex with Tommy Arthur shortly before he killed her husband.

"The rape kit would prove it either way," Sherrie Arthur said, noting that analysis of the rape kit was never made available to her father's attorneys.

Hall and numerous others involved in the case, however, say the right man was convicted in the case.

The 1982 incident wasn't the only shooting authorities connected to Arthur. His criminal past has many twists and turns.

Authorities say within a span of less than 10 years, from 1977 to 1986, Arthur shot at least four people.

Two died.

The first victim was a woman who was killed in 1977 in Marion County, a shooting in which he was convicted. Arthur abused work release privileges in connection with that case to kill Wicker, authorities say. They say Judy Wicker paid him $10,000.

Another shooting involved a Colbert County guard when Arthur broke out of the jail in 1986, shortly before the scheduled retrial in Troy Wicker's shooting. The guard survived a gunshot wound to the neck. The event caused one of his former attorneys to go into hiding, fearing Arthur might come looking for him.

Arthur fled to Knoxville, Tenn., where he would mastermind a bank robbery in which he made off with more than $9,000. That scheme included the abduction of a 56-year-old woman while stealing her vehicle.

Arthur was captured outside a hotel in Knoxville, wearing an all-white suit as he was getting into another car that had been reported stolen, authorities said.

He was found guilty of the robbery in Tennessee, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The retrial in the Troy Wicker murder conviction ultimately took place in Jefferson County in 1987 after a change of venue. It was one of two retrials for Arthur in Troy Wicker's shooting.

In the original trial and the retrials, the result was the same: A jury found him guilty of capital murder.

Through the years, Arthur has exhausted appeal after appeal, taking it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

April seems to be the month of landmark events in Arthur's case.

It was April 29, 1982, when Arthur and accomplice Judy Wicker were arrested for the murder of Judy Wicker's husband.

It was April 5, 1985, when Arthur's initial conviction was overturned by the Alabama Supreme Court.

It was April 11, 2001, when the state Supreme Court denied a motion to delay Arthur's execution, which had been set for 12:01 a.m. April 27. A U.S. District judge, however, would grant a stay of execution on April 24, and the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision refusing to lift that stay, just seven hours before Arthur was to be executed.

It was April 16 of this year when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Arthur's death sentence.

The next day, April 17, the Alabama Attorney General's Office officially requested to the state Supreme Court that an execution date be set for Arthur. They are awaiting a response.

One reason the Wicker case was tried as capital murder was because of his record.

Gary Alverson, who was the Colbert County district attorney in Arthur's two trials in which his capital murder conviction was upheld, said it can be considered capital murder if you have been convicted of a prior murder within 20 years of the existing case.

In 1977, Arthur was charged with murder and assault with intent to murder after the Marion County shooting earlier that year of Eloise West and Charlotte Harbin.

West, the sister of Arthur's common-law wife, Shirley Dodd, was shot once in the right eye and killed. Harbin, a cousin, was injured by a single shot that struck her left arm and side.

The shooting occurred at a mobile home supply company in Bear Creek. Authorities said Arthur walked into the building and shot the women while searching for his estranged wife. The women refused to call his wife, so Arthur pulled guns from each pocket and started shooting.

Arthur initially would plead not guilty by reason of insanity. He later changed that plea to guilty on what would have been the first day of his trial.

He was sentenced to life in prison. By 1982, he was in a Decatur work release center.

Authorities said that is when Arthur and Judy Wicker schemed to kill her husband, apparently so she could obtain his insurance money.

Police said the two had known each other for some time, and Arthur apparently had bought a car in violation of the terms of his work release. He would report to work and then leave, authorities said.

Wicker's initial story was that she was attacked and beaten upon returning to her Muscle Shoals residence at 301 Highland Ave., after taking their children to school.

Muscle Shoals police Capt. Lanny Coan was a patrol officer at the time. He was the first officer to enter the house, followed immediately by Capt. Eddie Lang.

"She was laying right inside the house, on the floor, with a robe on," Coan said.

They went farther into the house and found Troy Wicker's body, he said.

"The house was turned upside down," Coan said. "Every drawer had been pulled out and thrown in the floor.

"We thought it was an assault case, where someone had broken in and beaten her up. Then we found him dead and we didn't know what had happened.

"I'm sure it's one of the most bizarre cases that's ever been in this area."

Later, investigators would learn about the murder-for-hire scheme. Wicker was convicted of murder in 1982, and paroled 10 years later.

Testimony during Arthur's trial indicated he had arranged the purchase of bullets in Huntsville that were the same make of those used in the shooting.

Hall and Sheffield Police Chief Doug Aycock remember interviewing Arthur about the case. Aycock was a Sheffield investigator at the time, and the department granted a request from Muscle Shoals to allow Aycock to assist with the case.

Aycock said he'd had previous dealings with Arthur. In fact, Arthur was arrested in Sheffield on March 11, 1977, in connection with the Marion County homicide.

Hall and Aycock interviewed Arthur together, and let him know they had information that put him in Muscle Shoals several times.

They had information from a Huntsville club worker who said she had bought ammunition for Arthur. The woman told them Arthur said he "had a job to do in Muscle Shoals" authorities said.

Aycock said a Muscle Shoals police officer saw someone in the car with Judy Wicker while it was at the school crosswalk when she was dropping off her kids at school.

Authorities had phone records that tied Arthur and Judy Wicker.

Some $2,000 or more was found in Arthur's locker at the work release center in Decatur, Aycock said. It was Aycock who was able to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, having heard from a state trooper that a large sum of money had been found in the locker.

Yet Arthur never budged during interrogations.

"Every time we interviewed him, he never admitted to anything," Hall said. "He would always talk to us, but would never admit to anything or tell us what we needed to know."

The three capital murder trials, themselves, were quite interesting.

Arthur went through several attorneys, starting with two Decatur lawyers whom he dismissed. Arthur often would try parts of the case on his own.

Shoals attorneys Alan Gargis, Steve Gargis, Billy Underwood and William Hovater were among those who defended Arthur.

Hovater said the first trial was "just a circus."

"He took over his defense and did a lot of grandstanding," said Hovater, who was among the defense team in the second trial, after Steve Gargis was recused from the case.

Hovater said he never had any problems, but Arthur would often butt heads with his attorneys.

For instance, while the defense would be attempting to file a request for a change of venue, Arthur would say he wanted it to stay in the Shoals. Despite his request, his retrials were in Birmingham.

Ultimately, when his attorneys were pleading for Arthur's life after he was convicted of capital murder, Arthur would stand up and tell jurors he wanted the death penalty.

"In Birmingham, after I argued against the death penalty during the penalty phase of the trial, Tommy stood and gave an eloquent speech," Hovater said. "He told the jury, 'You may not understand my reasons, but I ask you to sentence me to the death penalty.' "

And they did.

Hovater said prosecutors offered a plea including a sentence of life in prison without parole before Arthur's retrial.

Arthur didn't mince words in his response, Hovater said. "He told me to tell them to take it and shove it …"

Underwood said he and Arthur had personality conflicts.

"After three months, his idea of what he wanted to tell the jury and my idea of the truth were vastly different," Underwood said.

Underwood wouldn't go into detail because of attorney-client privacy, but added, "I had problems with some things he wanted to say and do in the courtroom."

"If I think it's so outlandishly a lie, I have a duty to tell him," Underwood said.

A full 25 years after his arrest, the Arthur saga continues.

That is much to the disdain of Alabama Attorney General Troy King and others who argue that it takes too long for Alabama to carry out death sentences.

"Sometimes, doesn't the continued delay of justice result in the denial of justice (for the victims)," he asks.

"In so many ways, this is indicative of a system that is not perfect," King said. "The system promises they are going to give them justice. But the victims and their families continue to wait and wait and wait for justice and become victims of the system. They become jaded and victims all over again."

There are 199 inmates on death row in Alabama, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. Nine have been on death row longer than Arthur, with the longest incarcerated May 31, 1978.

The last execution in Alabama was Oct. 26, 2005, according to the department.

The average stay on death row is 13 years, King said.

"Twenty-five years is too long to wait for justice to be done, especially in a case as cold-blooded and calculated as this," King said. "This just magnifies a system out of balance."

He said someone should remain on death row for as long as it takes to be certain of their guilt. Three juries have done so, and that should suffice, King said.

"A person shouldn't be allowed to manipulate the system and prolong victims' agony," he said. "In my judgment, the time has come to deliver justice in this case."

But, Sherrie Arthur says, it doesn't matter how many trials take place if all the evidence isn't presented.

She said she would love to find out that her father is innocent. Even if the evidence shows he's guilty, it would at least bring closure, she said.

"I need to know whether he did that," said Sherrie Arthur, who was arrested and later acquitted on charges that she smuggled the gun to her father that was used in the jail break. "I need closure, too. There are two sets of victims in a murder: the victim's family and the family of the one convicted. We all want to know the truth."

Arthur's attorney stresses a timeline cannot be placed on a life-and-death matter.

"From our perspective, this is not the end," said Han, who first learned about the case through Legal Aid attorney Arnold Levine.

She said some people have the perspective that 25 years is a long time to carry out a death sentence, but there is another way to look at it.

"From Mr. Arthur's perspective, 25 years is a long time to spend in prison for a crime he didn't do," Han said.

Sherrie Arthur is hopeful, but not optimistic, that Han's request will be heard.

"It'll get turned down," she said. "He'll be executed within the next 30 to 60 days. He doesn't have a chance."

Bernie Delinski can be reached at 740-5739 or bernie.delinski@timesdaily.com.

Tom Smith can be reached at 332-0140 or tom.smith@timesdaily.com.