Alabama man executed for killing elderly couple in 2004

An Alabama man convicted of murdering an elderly couple in 2004 was executed by lethal injection on Thursday night.

Jamie Ray Mills, 50, had spent 20 years behind bars for the killings of Floyd and Vera Hill in Guin. He was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m. after a three-drug injection at a state prison in Atmore.

A federal court rejected Mills’ last-minute appeal on Tuesday, and his attorneys asked the Supreme Court to intervene on Wednesday.

Mills had claimed he was innocent and argued he received an unfair trial. His wife, JoAnn Mills, was the key witness against him. She later pleaded guilty to murder charges and was sentenced to life in prison.

Attorneys for Mills claimed JoAnn Mills cut a plea deal before trial but did not inform the court. Prosecutors have maintained there was never a deal with JoAnn Mills.

“Prosecutors obtained his conviction illegally by falsely telling the judge and jury they had not made a deal with the State’s star witness,” the Equal Justice Initiative wrote on its website.

The Millses went to the Hills’ home in Guin, about 70 miles northwest of Birmingham, on the night of June 24, 2004. Floyd Hill, 87, and Vera Hill, 72, let them in to use the phone.

At the home, Jamie Mills attacked the couple with a machete, a hammer and a tire iron. Floyd was pronounced dead at the scene, while Vera died from her injuries about 12 weeks later.

Mills then stole several items, including $140 from Floyd Hill’s wallet and a tacklebox with prescription medication.

Police captured Jamie and JoAnn Mills the following day. They were leaving their home wearing blood-stained clothes and transporting the murder weapons in the trunk of their car.

A jury convicted Jamie Mills of capital murder and voted 11-1 to sentence him to death.

He was the first person to be executed in Alabama since January, when the state killed Kenneth Eugene Smith using nitrogen gas, a first in U.S. history.

With News Wire Services