Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey expected to answer questions about 2020 Census on Thursday. Instead, she was confronted by the Pamela Woods, the sister of Nathaniel Woods, who was executed by the state on March 5 for the murder of three police officers.
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Video from WAFF TV shows Woods calmly walking up to the governor as Ivey was answering a question for a reporter.
โYou killed my brother,โ she said. โGov. Ivey, you killed my brother.โ
Ivey had no response, and let herself be led away by her team.
โHeโs an innocent man and you killed him,โ Woods called after her.
Nathaniel Woods was sentenced to death in 2005 for his role in the killing of three Birmingham cops: Carlos โCurlyโ Owen, Harley Chisholm III, and Charles Bennett. Woods didnโt pull the trigger, a fact not disputed by the prosecution or Woodsโ defense. But that doesnโt matter in Alabama, where accomplices to murder can not only receive murder convictions, but be sentenced to death.
Prosecutors accused Woods of conspiring to kill the officers, luring them into the home he and his friend, Kerry Spencer, were in. Spencer and Woodsโ legal teams say the cops were attempting to collect money from a known drug dealer in the neighborhood, and that Spencer shot the officers in self-defense.
Spencer, who is appealing his death sentence, has always claimed Woods was innocent.
Some politicians and activists publicly called for Ivey to stop the execution, but the governorโs office claimed there wasnโt sufficient evidence to release Woods.
Pamela Woods, speaking to reporters after the confrontation, said Alabama wanted โrevengeโ for the cop killings.
โHeโs not a killer. He didnโt plan anything,โ she continued. โHe had bad legal counsel. Thatโs the only thing that went wrong in his case.โ
โThese were dirty cops, everyone in Ensley knows this, everyone knows this,โ she said. โSo why? Why execute an innocent man?โ
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