Arthur execution date set

MONTGOMERY - The Alabama Supreme Court on Monday set a July 31 execution date for Thomas Douglas Arthur for the 1982 contract killing of Muscle Shoals businessman Troy Wicker.

Arthur, 66, was scheduled to die Sept. 27, but Gov. Bob Riley granted a 45-day stay pending a review of the way Alabama administered lethal injection drugs.

Arthur then came within one day of dying Dec. 5 when his death sentence was stayed pending a U.S. Supreme Court review of Kentucky's use of lethal injection.

Attorney General Troy King, who filed a motion seeking an execution date, said Arthur has escaped death long enough.

"My prayer is we haven't set the (Wicker) family up for another disappointment," King said. "My prayer is we finally see that justice delayed and very nearly denied after a quarter century is finally being done."

Arthur can still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Arthur was convicted and sentenced to death three times for shooting Wicker in the eye while he was sleeping Feb. 1, 1982.

Arthur's daughter, Sherrie Stone, said her father is innocent and could be cleared by testing DNA that still exists from the crime scene. Courts previously denied requests for DNA testing, saying it was speculative or filed too late in the proceedings.

Stone said her father deserves a hearing under a writ of habeas corpus in an attempt to prove he's been unlawfully detained.

"I feel like it's a sad day when the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a suspected terrorist has a right to habeas corpus review but a United States citizen, which my father is, has never had one," Stone said. "It's a sad day for American justice that there is evidence the DNA could prove his innocence, but a U.S. citizen cannot get that opportunity."

Prosecutors said Judy Wicker hired Arthur to kill her husband. At her own trial, Judy Wicker testified that someone else raped and beat her and then shot her husband. At Arthur's trial, she testified she had sex with Arthur and paid him $10,000 to kill her husband.

At the time of the killing, Arthur was serving time at a Decatur work release center for a 1977 murder conviction.

Arthur's attorneys seek DNA testing of physical evidence, including a rape kit, bloodstains and hair to prove he couldn't have been at the murder scene.

Dana Beyerle can be reached at (334) 264-6605 or dtb12345@aol.com.