July 20, 2013
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama’s second execution in almost two years is scheduled for Thursday at Holman Prison in Atmore.
Court records show that 30-year-old Andrew Lackey asked the state to set his execution date, and has not taken action to stop it.
Lackey is scheduled to die by lethal injection at Holman Prison in Atmore for the beating and shooting death of 80-year-old Charles Newman during a 2005 Halloween night robbery at Newnan’s home in Limestone County. Lackey is to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Lackey would be the first inmate executed in Alabama since Christopher T. Johnson of Escambia County received a lethal injection Oct. 20, 2011. He was the sixth inmate executed in 2011.
The state’s executions have been slowed partly because of a legal dispute over the drugs used in executions.
Lackey’s execution was set after he wrote a letter to the Alabama Supreme Court saying that he had “an odd request.”
“Please set me an execution date. I do not wish to pursue any further appeals for my death sentence,” Lackey said in the letter to the justices, according to court records. Lackey said he would not file any further appeals.
Court records show Lackey has taken no action to stop the execution.
In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Richard Anderson, Lackey says, “I do not know what else I can do. Will you please help me get an execution date.”
Court records show that Newman made an emergency phone call to the Athens Police Department on Halloween night 2005 in which he could be heard saying, “Don’t do that,” ”Leave me alone” and “What do you want.”
The police operator then heard the apparent assailant repeatedly ask, “Where’s the vault?” according to the records.
Bryan Stevenson, an attorney with the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative, said both the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the trial court have ruled that the state can go ahead with Lackey’s execution.
Stevenson said he and other attorneys opposed to Lackey being executed and “have argued that he is mentally ill.”
“Our point is that he needs to be examined,” Stevenson said.