Tommy Arthur, 75, was convicted in the 1982 killing of Troy Wicker, a riverboat engineer who was fatally shot as he slept in his home.
ATMORE, Ala. — An Alabama inmate who avoided seven execution dates was put to death early Friday, capping years of litigation challenging the humaneness of lethal injection.
The inmate, Tommy Arthur, 75, was pronounced dead after receiving an injection at the state prison in Atmore, Ala., the authorities said. Mr. Arthur was convicted of killing Troy Wicker, a riverboat engineer who was fatally shot as he slept in his home.
“Thomas Arthur’s protracted attempt to escape justice is finally at an end, ” Steven T. Marshall, the Alabama attorney general, said in a statement. “Most importantly, tonight, the family of Troy Wicker can begin the long-delayed process of recovery from a painful loss.”
Mr. Wicker’s two sons witnessed the execution but made no statement.
Mr. Arthur maintained his innocence in recent interviews as his lawyers pressed the governor to delay his eighth execution date to do DNA test of hairs collected at the crime scene.
But the governor, Kay Ivey, refused the request to halt the execution.
The long-running legal case began on Feb. 1,1982, in Muscle Shoals, a town in northern Alabama along the Tennessee River.
Mr. Wicker’s wife, Judy, initially told the police she had come home and had been raped by a black man who had fatally shot her husband. She was later convicted in the case, and she changed her story and testified she had discussed killing her husband with Mr. Arthur, who came to the house in makeup and an Afro wig and shot Mr. Wicker. Mr. Arthur was in a prison work-release program at the time for the 1977 killing of his sister-in-law, a crime he admitted committing.
Mr. Arthur had three trials, as his first two convictions were overturned. He escaped from jail while awaiting his second trial by shooting a jailer in the neck. He purposely asked jurors to sentence him to death to open more avenues of appeal.
In his final statement, Mr. Arthur appeared to choke back tears as he apologized to his four children. “I’ m sorry I failed you as a father, ” he said. Prison officials said he was allowed to have a picture of his children in the lethal injection chamber, where he could see it as he lost consciousness.
