Alabama Murderer Facing Execution

Nathaniel Woods, convicted in 2005 of the murders of three Birmingham police officers, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection tonight.  Bill Hutchinson of ABC news reports that death penalty opponents and some civil rights activists are demanding that Governor Kay Ivey grant Woods a reprieve.   A jury found that Woods and accomplice Kerry Spencer lured four officers serving an arrest warrant into a suspected crack house in Burmingham on June 17, 2004 where Spencer shot them all with a rifle, killing three.  The forth officer survived to testify at Woods’ trial.  On appeal Woods claimed that his trial attorney was ineffective and misinformed him about a possible plea bargain.  A 2016 Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals decision indicates that witnesses heard Woods threaten to kill the police if they came back to his house, and the he pointed out one of the officers coming in a back door so  Spencer could shoot him.  Among the celebrities calling Woods innocent and insisting his execution be halted is Kim Kardashian West.   Update:  Woods was pronounced dead at  9:01 PM Thursday.