Alabama executes Jamie Mills by lethal injection

The state of Alabama executed Jamie Ray Mills, 50, by lethal injection Thursday night for the 2004 beating deaths of an elderly Guin couple.

The execution happened in the death chamber of William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. Warden Terry Raybon read the death warrant. Mills appeared to stop breathing about four minutes after the chemicals apparently entered his body.

Mills was convicted of three counts of capital murder in August 2007 for the 2004 killings. The jury recommended the death penalty by a 11-1 vote. The trial judge took the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Mills to death.

The execution happened in front of five witnesses and four media members. Here's what they observed:

6:07 p.m.

The drapes in front window of the observation room were opened. Mills was strapped to a gurney cruciform, there was an IV line in each arm. The lines ran through a small square hole in the back of the death chamber.

Mills was given the opportunity to make a statement.

“I love my family,” he said in a strong voice. “I love my brother and sister. I couldn’t ask for anything more…. I love y’all. Carry on.”

Mills appeared to see his witnesses through the large glass window. He gave them the thumbs up sign several times.

6:12 p.m.

His spiritual advisor approached the gurney and appeared to pray with him. Mills winked at his spiritual advisor, and faced his family again, giving the thumbs up sign. He closed his eyes and appeared to lose consciousness as the spiritual advisor was giving him a blessing. The advisor reached down and touched his left leg and stepped to the foot of the gurney.

6:14 p.m.

A guard at the head of the gurney did a consciousness check by raking his thumb across Mills' left eyelid, and he shouted his name. The guard then pinched the skin of Mills inner, upper left arm. Mills appeared to still be breathing. His abdomen was fluttering and his chest was moving slightly as if he was taking very shallow breaths.

Several of Mills' witnesses sobbed during the execution.

6:16 p.m.

Mills appeared to take his last breath.

6:19 p.m.

The drapes to the observation room were drawn. Media witnesses were ushered out shortly after.

According to prison officials his time of death was 6:26 p.m.

Once the execution process apparently began, Mills appeared to show no physical reaction other than closing his eyes.

“Almost 20 years ago, the grandchildren of Floyd and Vera Hill, worried for their grandparents, filed a missing-person report only for police to discover the couple had been brutally and horrendously beaten to death,” Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement following the execution. “The Hills’ lives were taken at the hands of Jamie Mills. The evidence in this case is overwhelming, and Mr. Mills is undoubtedly guilty.

“Tonight, two decades after he committed these murders, Jamie Mills has paid the price for his heinous crimes. I pray for the victims and their loved ones as they continue to grieve.”

The nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative criticized state prosecutors following Mills' execution.

"By failing to honestly disclose the conversations and arrangements with the state’s main witness against Jamie Mills at trial, state prosecutors have lied, deceived and misrepresented the reliability of the evidence against Jamie Mills for 17 years," said a statement issued by EJI late Thursday. "They weren’t honest with Jamie Mills, with the jury, the judge, state and federal appeal courts or the public. New evidence documenting this deceit has been dismissed as 'too late,' making finality more important than fairness. This is not justice."Jamie Mills becomes another person needlessly killed by state officials who comfortably tolerate state deception, violation of the law and breach of fundamental, constitutional rights to carry out a death sentence they claim upholds the rule of law. ... There will come a day when governments recognize the perverse injustice of this process and the wrongfulness of this punishment.  It will be a day that is too late for Jamie Mills which makes his death tragically regrettable and mournfully unjust." 

Attorney General Steve Marshall also issued a statement after the execution.

“Tonight, Jamie Mills was executed by lethal injection after having been convicted by a jury of his peers of the heinous murder of Floyd and Vera Hill of Marion County,” Marshall said in the statement. “In 2004, Mills brutally attacked the Hills in their backyard shed and left them to die as part of a senseless robbery-murder. I extend my deepest sympathy to the Hill family as they have endured the unimaginable for nearly 20 years as they awaited justice to finally be served.

"The depth of violence experienced by Mr. and Mrs. Hill at the hands of this murderer cannot be understated. Mills used a machete, tire tool, and ball-peen hammer to mercilessly end the lives of two people. His actions were cold and calculated, and his assigned punishment has never been more deserved."

More:Nitrogen gas execution: Kenneth Smith convulses for four minutes in Alabama death chamber

In preparation for the execution it took the execution team “two sticks,” to establish the two IV lines, Prisons Commissioner John Q. Hamm said in a news conference after the execution. He also read a statement from the Hill family.

“For the past 20 years our family has been seeking justice,” the statement said in part. “Justice has been served.”

According to prison system officials Mills had visitors Thursday: his attorney, two brothers, sister, sister-in-law and spiritual advisor. Mills took no phone calls. His final meal was a seafood platter with three large shrimp, two catfish filets, three oysters, three onion rings and one stuffed crab.

Witnesses to his execution were his attorney, a brother, a sister, a sister-in-law and a brother-in-law along with his spiritual advisor.

The crime

“There is no doubt that Mills committed those offenses,” the Alabama Attorney General’ s Office motion to the Alabama Supreme Court, seeking his execution states. “… Mills’ convictions and sentence are final because he has completed his direct appeal, state post-conviction review, and federal habeas review. Accordingly, it is time for this death sentence to be carried out.”

Mills and his wife, Joann, went to the Guin home of Vera Hill, 72, and Floyd Hill, 87, in June 2004 asking to make a phone call, court records and media accounts say. Mills was 30 at the time. Guin is in Marion County in northwest Alabama.

Afterward, the four of them went to a shed where the Hills kept items to sell as part of a yard sale, the Alabama Reflector reported.

The AG’s motion states that the women went back to the home, leaving Floyd Hill and Mills in the shed. Mills beat Floyd Hill, who fell to the ground. The women then returned to the shed and found Floyd Hill on the ground. Mills then beat Vera Hill on the back of the head with a hammer, as JoAnn Mills stood in the corner. Court records show the murder weapons were a machete, a ball peen hammer and a tire iron.

Vera Mills died several months later from her injuries.

According to the motion, Jamie Mills then locked the shed and stole items valued at about $140 from the home including a tackle box, medicines, a wallet, a purse and a police scanner.

Joann Mills, who testified against her husband, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

More:Alabama executions through the years: Facts, figures and failures

Mills became the second inmate executed this year, and two other executions are pending.

• In January, Kenneth Smith was executed by nitrogen hypoxia, the first time a human was executed by that method.
• The Alabama Supreme Court has authorized the execution of Keith Edmund Gavin. Gov. Kay Ivey has set the execution date for midnight July 18 to 6 a.m. July 20, with lethal injection as the method.
• The state Supreme Court has also authorized the execution of Alan Eugene Miller with nitrogen hypoxia as the method. Ivey has set the execution for midnight Sept. 26 to 6 a.m. Sept. 27.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.