In 2016, Arthur was minutes away from execution when the U.S.

The state’s last execution using midazolam took longer than expected as the inmate coughed for the first 13 minutes of the procedure. Kay Ivey to intervene.Īrthur’s recent legal challenges have largely centred on the state’s method of execution, including the use of the sedative midazolam to render inmates unconscious. Judy Wicker’s rape kit cannot be found to be tested. “I consider that he killed her, too, because she just fought so hard to get justice for her brother, and it never came,” Grantham saidĪrthur says that there is no physical evidence linking him to scene and that Judy Wicker changed her story as a “get out of jail free card.” His defence has asked for modern DNA testing on the wig the killer wore, arguing the prosecution’s case would “fall apart” if it shows someone else’s DNA. The many delays have been painful for Troy Wicker’s family, Grantham said, including one of his sisters, who died of cancer soon after Arthur’s last reprieve. “He’s a Houdini,” said Janette Grantham, director of the Victims of Crime and Leniency. Arthur has won multiple execution delays, partly because his attorneys have pursued appeals arguing lethal injection procedures would be painful because he suffers from a heart condition. All were delayed as a pro bono legal team fought his convictions. The decision was strategic, he said, to open up more appellate review. A second conviction followed and also was overturned, but a third conviction stuck.Īt each trial, Arthur - initially to the surprise of his lawyers - asked jurors to give him the death penalty. He remained a fugitive for more than a month. While awaiting retrial, he escaped from jail in 1986 by shooting a jailer in the neck with a pistol and forcing another jailer to open his cell door. He was convicted in 1983, but that conviction was overturned. I want to apologize for not being the father that I should have been and could have been.

But investigators said they also found phone calls between Judy Wicker and Arthur. Arthur said he won the money in a poker game. Police first looked into Arthur when a tip came in saying a work-release inmate had a stack of $100 bills. He admits to that crime, but says he only meant to scare her by firing a shot over her head. 1, 1982, Arthur was already in a prison work-release program for the 1977 slaying of his sister-in-law. When police found Troy Wicker shot through the eye in his bed on Feb. “I won’t give up ’til I draw my last breath. But he is unequivocal: “I did not commit that crime,” he said during a recent telephone interview from prison.

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