MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivy put Robin “Rocky” Myers’ death sentence on Friday and said there are ample questions about his execution that he cannot proceed with his guilt.
Ivy said that instead of being executed later this year, Myers, 63, will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ivey pointed out that it was a sentence recommended by the ju judge at the 1994 trial.
The Republican governor said she is a solid supporter of the death penalty, but “I cannot move forward with Mr. Myers’ guilt by executing him.”
“In short, I’m not sure Mr. Myers is innocent, but I’m not sure of his guilt enough to approve his execution. So I must respect both the jury’s decision to convict him and the recommendation that he will be sentenced to life in prison without parole,” Ivy said in a statement.
Myers was convicted in 1991 of stabbing Rudy May Tucker, 69, at her Decatur home. Myers, who lived across the street from Tucker, has long claimed that he is innocent.
The reprieve came to objections from Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall.
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On February 21, the Alabama Supreme Court granted the state attorney general’s request to use nitrogen gas to approve Myers’ execution date. The next step was for Ivey to set the date.
It was Ivey’s first execution since Ivey first took office in 2017. Ivey, who presided over 20 executions, called it “one of the most difficult decisions I had to make as governor.”
“But I hope that Tucker’s family will somehow find closure and peace, knowing that the incident is closed, and that Mr. Myers will spend the rest of his life in prison,” Ivy said.
His lawyers received multiple questions surrounding Myers’ case. Physical evidence on the scene did not link him to a crime. According to Myers’ son, Tucker identified her assailant as a short, stocky black man, but did not name Myers or his neighbors as attackers. The ju judge voted 9-3 votes for him to live his life in prison. However, the judge sentenced Myers to the death penalty under the now-existing system of Alabama that allows judges to decide death sentences.
Ivy said there was “situational evidence” to Myers, which he was “troubled by seemingly contradictory evidence from all involved.” Court records show that many of the state’s cases included a VCR taken from Tucker’s home and whether Myers was the person who brought it to the drug home.
“God is answering his prayers,” Ju-Announcer May Puckett said, urging Ivy to intervene, believing Myers to be innocent.
“Governor Ivey put it back to the ju apprentice’s hands,” Packett wrote.
Casey Keaton, Myers’ lawyer, said there have been multiple failures in Myers’ case. This included a previous attorney waived his case and missed the deadline to bring up the matter in federal court.
“I don’t know if there are enough words to express my joy, relief and gratitude to learning the governor’s decision to commute to Myers’ sentence,” Keaton wrote in an email.
“I have represented Mr. Myers since 2007. As evidence of his innocence and the many injustice he experienced in the course of his case, I hoped that he would one day see some measure of justice, mercy and humanity.”
The last time the Governor of Alabama was sentenced to death was in 1999.
Marshall urged the governor on Thursday to challenge his innocence claim and advance the execution.
“I am amazed at Governor Evy’s decision to commute to Rocky Myers’ death sentence and amazed that she chose not to communicate directly with me about the case and her decision,” Marshall said in a statement.
He added that his staff “sadly saddened tonight not for himself, but for Ludie Mae Tucker’s family.”
