Arthur decision may come today

Convicted killer Tommy Arthur could learn today whether he'll be executed by lethal injection Thursday for the 1982 slaying of a Muscle Shoals man.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a private conference Friday, was to have considered Arthur's request for a stay of Arthur's Thursday scheduled execution. The result of that conference will not be known until today.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is still considering the overall national implications of several challenges to lethal injection, the method of execution used in Alabama and most other states. Opponents of lethal injection say the method of execution represents cruel and unusual punishment.

Arthur, who was convicted of killing Troy Wicker in a murder-for-hire scheme involving Wicker's wife, Judy, has come within hours of being executed twice. The most recent reprieve came Sept. 27, when Gov. Bob Riley postponed the execution so the state could review its execution procedure.

A new execution date was set for Thursday, but Arthur, a former Sheffield resident, continues his fight to stay alive.

"(Arthur) alleges that the execution procedures used by (Alabama) ... lack the medically necessary safeguards to ensure that he will remain fully anesthetized throughout the execution," Arthur's lawyer, Suhana Han, stated in a new motion for a stay of execution filed last week.

Previous motions by the 65-year-old Arthur to delay or stop his execution have failed.

Arthur's daughter, Sherrie Stone, said they are not giving up and are again trying to challenge Alabama's method of execution by lethal injection because the U.S. Supreme Court said it would review a Kentucky challenge to lethal injection.

Since that decision by the court, the Supreme Court and other courts have stayed lethal injection executions nationwide pending Supreme Court consideration in a Kentucky case.

"Mr. Arthur respectfully requests a stay of his execution so the Court is able to give full and fair consideration to the complex legal and factual issues presented here," Han's brief states.

Arthur asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the judge for the federal circuit that includes Alabama, to stay his execution.

Alabama, in its reply to Han's motion, said Arthur didn't appeal in timely fashion under the law.

Stephen Bright, an attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights in Montgomery, said "it's conceivable" the Supreme Court will grant a delay in Arthur's execution while it weighs lethal injection claims, including the one from Kentucky.

Clay Crenshaw, chief of the capital litigation section for Alabama Attorney General Troy King, said if the Supreme Court declines to review Arthur's request for a review of his case, there's no need for a stay.

"A stay is not needed to allow this court adequate time to decide Arthur's petition," Crenshaw said in his reply brief.

Arthur was convicted three times in Wicker's death. Judy Wicker said immediately after her husband's death that she was attacked and raped in their home, while her husband was killed. Later she testified she paid Arthur $10,000 to kill her husband.

Arthur's case was handed a blow last week when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal to have DNA testing performed on evidence collected at the scene in Muscle Shoals.

Stone and her father's attorney had been petitioning the Supreme Court and Riley to stay the execution for the purpose of doing DNA testing. At the time of the slaying, DNA testing did not exist. Troy Wicker was killed by a single shot to the head.

Stone said questions could be answered through DNA testing.

She said he wrote Riley and asked for a meeting to discuss her father's case.

"I just asked for a few minutes so I could explain all the unanswered questions, so I can have closure," Stone said. "But he refuses."

Dana Beyerle is the Montgomery Bureau chief.

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