James Powel and Marty Roney
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey commuted a death sentence for the first time in her tenure Friday, sparing inmate Robin Dion “Rocky” Myers.
The Alabama Supreme Court had cleared the way for Myers to be executed, but he will now serve a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. This marks the first commutation of a death sentence in the state since 1999.
Myers, 63, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the 1991 capital murder of Ludie Mae Tucker in Decatur. Myers was to be executed by nitrogen gas hypoxia, though no date had been set.
The Republican governor said in a statement that the commutation was “one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make as governor,” but it “pales in comparison to the pain and suffering Ludie Mae Tucker and Marie Dutton endured on the night of October 4, 1991.”
Attorney General ‘astonished’ by death penalty commutation
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement saying he was “astonished” by Ivey’s decision and “bewildered” by what he called a lack of communication from the governor’s office.
“For the last 30 years, my office has zealously defended this case on appeal; and for 30 years, no court has reached the conclusion that the governor reached after a cursory review,” Marshall said in the statement. “My capital litigation and victims’ services teams will go home tonight deeply saddened, not for themselves, but for the family of Ludie Mae Tucker. We will never stop fighting for justice.”
Ivey communicated her decision to the Tucker family, a requirement of Alabama law, before notifying the attorney general, her office told the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Governor says she is respecting jury’s original decision, stands behind death penalty
Mae Puckett, a juror during Meyer’s original trial, was among those who had called for clemency after the Alabama Supreme Court authorized the execution.
“I know he is innocent. They never proved he did it. They never proved he was in the house,” Puckett told the Associated Press.
Kacey Keeton, a lawyer for Myers, told the wire service at the time of the authorization that the case “rife with examples of failure.”
“I’m not sure there are words enough to convey my joy, relief, and gratitude at learning of Gov. Ivey’s decision to commute Mr. Myers’s sentence,” Keeton told the Associated Press after the decision.
Ivey said in a statement that, while she was not entirely convinced of Myers’ innocence claims, she had enough doubt to make the historic move.
“No murder weapon was found, and no DNA evidence or fingerprints or other physical evidence tied Mr. Myers to the scene of the crime,” Ivey wrote. “Although Ms. Tucker knew Mr. Myers and let her attacker inside the house, neither she nor Marie Dutton — the only two eyewitnesses to the crime — ever identified Mr. Myers as the assailant. There is also other circumstantial evidence, but it is riddled with conflicting evidence from seemingly everyone involved.”
The jury had originally recommended a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, but the trial judge overrode the recommendation and sentenced Myers to death, court records show.
Alabama passed a law about three years ago removing the judge’s power to enact the death penalty over a jury’s recommendation.
Ivey said in her statement that the case did not change her mind about the use of the death penalty in the state.
“Thus far as governor, I have presided over 22 executions, and I will never waver in my belief that the death penalty is just punishment for society’s most serious crimes. I also reject all attempts to manipulate the system by activist lawyers for death row inmates who make unfounded claims of contrived injustices,” Ivey said.
Meyers would have been second execution in state this year
The commutation spares Meyers from likely being the second execution in Alabama this year.
Alabama executed Demetrius Terrance Frazier by nitrogen gas in February, making him the fourth inmate in the U.S. to be put to death by the controversial method since Alabama began using it last year.
Frazier and his attorneys unsuccessfully argued that the use of nitrogen gas violated Frazier’s Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Opponents of the method have argued that it amounts to torture.
The Rev. Jeff Hood, a spiritual advisor for Death Row inmates, witnessed the first use of the nitrogen hypoxia in the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith and described it as being “horrific,” saying there were “minutes and minutes of thrashing and spitting … his head going up and down, back and forth,” and the “gurney that’s bolted to the floor started shaking.”
The state saw six executions in 2024 and has put to death 78 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The Alabama Department of Corrections lists 157 people currently on its death row.
