Execution date set for Jamie Ray Mills

By P.J. Gossett
General manager
MONTGOMERY — It has been nearly two months since the State of Alabama made a motion to the Supreme Court of Alabama to set a date for the execution of Jamie Ray Mills. On Wednesday, March 20, the order for the sentence to be carried out was granted by the said court. The death warrant has now been issued for the execution to take place between midnight on Thursday, May 30, and 6 a.m. on Friday, May 31.
In a letter issued on March 27, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey ordered Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm to carry out Mills’ sentence during the time specified, which will occur at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
Mills was sentenced in 2007 for the 2004 capital murders of Floyd and Vera Hill of Guin.
“Although I have no current plans to grant clemency in this case, I retain my authority under the Constitution of the State of Alabama to grant a reprieve or commutation, if necessary, at any time before the execution is carried out,” Ivey stated in her letter to Hamm.
Even though Alabama became the first state to use nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution, Mills is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection, according to court documents.
Court records also reveal Mills has exhausted all of his appeals. He was indicted on three counts of capital murder in Dec. 2004. According to Alabama law, if the same violent act results in the death of two victims, a third count of murder is added to the charges. He was found guilty by a Marion County jury on Aug. 23, 2007, who recommended death 11-1.
Mills’ common-law wife JoAnn is currently serving a sentence of life without parole for her part in the Hill murders.