Daughter tries to stop execution

For most of her adult life, Sherrie Arthur Stone hated her father.

She and her mentally challenged younger brother had essentially been left to fend for themselves after her father, Tommy Arthur, was sent to prison for murder. She said her hatred grew even more some five years later when he was convicted of capital murder in the death of Troy Wicker.

"I was his worst critic," she said. "I hated him for what he did. To be honest with you, when this happened, I thought he probably did it."

Then she took a close look into the Wicker case.

"As I looked into it, I learned the evidence is just not there," she said.

Since that time, she has fought with authorities to study DNA evidence that never was tested or presented in court.

She and her father are running out of time in that fight. Arthur is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Sept. 27 for the 1982 shooting death of 35-year-old Wicker.

From his cell in Holman Prison's Death Row, Arthur has proclaimed his innocence.

In a brief telephone interview last week, he stood by that statement, with a voice that rings of desperation and frustration.

"I'm pissed off," he said. "They're trying to kill my ass."

Arthur called his daughter's cell phone while she was in an interview with TimesDaily reporters. He could only speak for a few minutes, and allowed Stone to put him on speaker phone.

He lashed out at the fact that he has been in Holman since 1983 while his requests to authorities and the media to hear him out have fallen on deaf ears.

"I've been down here 24 years; no one was listening to me," he said. "Now, I'm running out of time, and suddenly everyone wants to talk to me."

Asked if he believes his daughter's efforts will lead to a stay of execution, Arthur replied, "They're gonna kill my ass, being realistic. But my daughter's not going to give it up."

Stone has put in a request to speak with Gov. Bob Riley's office about a stay of execution while the DNA evidence is examined. She also has spoken with state Attorney General Troy King's office, she said.

Jeff Emerson, a spokesman for Riley, said attorneys in the governor's legal office are reviewing materials about the case sent by Arthur's attorneys and his daughter.

Emerson said Riley has no plans to meet with Stone because he has not reviewed the case.

Riley has the authority to postpone a death sentence.

A spokesman for King, Chris Bence, said King plans to review his agency's capital litigation section file on the Arthur case this weekend. Because he has not reviewed the case, "The attorney general at this point is not inclined to meet with her," Bence said of a possible meeting with Stone.

"I'm fixing to die for something I didn't do," Arthur said, often yelling into the phone. "Riley's politically driven. If he steps out on a limb to try to help me, and it hurts him politically, he's not gonna do it."

Stone also has expressed frustration, saying she called King's office last week and immediately was put off. "His office told me it was a waste of my time. That insulted me."

She also believes her father has not had proper legal representation. Arthur has fired attorneys on the spot, and even took over his own defense at one point.

Now Stone has obtained the help of a New York City law firm, Sullivan and Cromwell.

The firm is filing two motions on Arthur's behalf. One questions the constitutionality of lethal injection. The other is a request to have the DNA evidence tested.

A letter to Riley from Suhana S. Han, a member of the law firm, requests access to the DNA evidence.

Han states in the letter that no evidence has undergone DNA testing. Han has requested access to it so it can be tested at no cost to the state.

She also states in the letter that new testimony from a witness confirms Arthur was nowhere near the Wicker residence on the morning of the murder.

Other key statements in the letter:

• Judy Wicker, who was accused of paying Arthur to kill her husband, testified at her own trial that an intruder burglarized her home, assaulted her and shot her husband. An officer at the scene testified Judy Wicker claimed she had been raped. A rape kit was prepared that day. She later testified against Arthur and changed her story to the murder-for-hire scheme and received an early release from prison.
• Arthur was denied effective assistance of counsel. His appointed counsel conducted virtually no independent investigation.
• Han's letter to Riley includes an affidavit of Peggy Wicker Jones, the victim's sister, in which Jones supports Arthur's request for DNA testing.

The appeal is in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court, said Jordan Razza, an attorney with Sullivan and Cromwell.

"If we lose in the 11th Circuit, I imagine we would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court," Razza said last week.

Razza said the appeals make it clear that time is a factor, as Arthur's execution date quickly approaches.

Stone said physical evidence already indicated the fingerprints at the scene of Wicker's death were not her father's, and hair that was found in the victim's hands was from an African-American. Judy Wicker initially claimed a black man killed her husband. She later said it was Arthur.

She testified she paid Arthur $10,000 to kill her husband. Judy Wicker was found guilty as an accomplice and served 10 years of a life sentence.

Even with her determined drive to grant a stay for her father, Stone quickly admits she knows he is far from angelic. She even laments, "He wasn't exactly the greatest father."

Indeed, Arthur has a notorious reputation, one that began long before Wicker's death. In 1977, Arthur pleaded guilty to killing Eloise West and shooting Charlotte Harbin in Marion County.

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.

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

Authorities say Arthur had free reign at the center, and had obtained access to a vehicle that he used to travel to Highland Avenue in Muscle Shoals and kill Troy Wicker.

Arthur was convicted of capital murder in the case and sentenced to death Feb. 19, 1983. His conviction was overturned twice, but both times a jury found him guilty of capital murder, the final time in 1991.

Arthur escaped from the Colbert County Jail in 1986, where he was awaiting one of his retrials. In the process, he shot a guard, wounding him in the neck, authorities said. The guard survived.

Stone was accused of aiding in that escape, but was found not guilty.

Arthur fled to Knoxville, Tenn., where he was accused of masterminding a bank robbery and making off with more than $9,000. That scheme included the abduction of a 56-year-old woman while stealing her vehicle. He was captured outside a Knoxville hotel while getting into another vehicle that had been reported stolen, authorities said.

Still, Arthur and his daughter ask, if the state of Alabama says he is so obviously guilty of capital murder, why does it have a problem with testing the DNA evidence?

"We're just hoping Gov. Riley considers it," Stone said. "He has the power. He has the power to stay this."

She again points to the state's failure to test DNA evidence, and questions why fingerprints at the scene and hair in the victim's hand were not matches for her father.

"If the state is so convinced and ready to kill him, why are they are not willing to make sure," Stone asked. "Do they know he's innocent, and if so, and they proceed, it's not an execution, it's murder."

She said many people assume her father is guilty, since three juries convicted him. "Those three juries never saw any of this evidence," she said. "You could have a 100 trials, and if the juries don't see all the evidence, you would still have the same verdicts."

She claims some jury members who heard the cases said that if they had the DNA information and other evidence that wasn't presented, they wouldn't have convicted him.

Today, Stone, 46, is married and is a real estate agent in Florida. She takes care of her brother, Douglas, and she is determined to win this battle.

"I've never been beaten at something when I've set my mind to it," she said.

She plans to continue the fight to get the DNA evidence tested, even if her appeals fail and her father is executed.

"This is a chapter of my life that has been going on for years," she said. "When I get to the bottom of this, and the truth comes out, I'll close this chapter and get on with my life."

She said the last time she saw her father was during a prison visit July 6. That was the first time she'd seen him more than a decade.

She plans to be at the execution if all appeals fail. "He said he didn't want me to be there, but I could tell he does."

She said even if the DNA evidence were to reveal her father was at the scene, it at least would provide that closure.

"I'm not going to be able to live with myself until I find out if he did it," she said. "If the evidence shows he was there, let's execute him. If not, he's done the time. Let him out."

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

Tom Smith can be reached at 740-5757 or tom.smith@timesdaily.com.

Montgomery Bureau Chief Dana Beyerle contributed to this report.