Alabama
Montgomery: The state is preparing to execute an inmate by lethal injection in what would be Alabama’s first death sentence carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Willie B. Smith III, 51, is scheduled to be put to death Thursday at a south Alabama prison for the 1991 shotgun slaying of Sharma Ruth Johnson. U.S. District Judge Austin Huffaker Jr. on Tuesday denied Smith’s lawyers’ request for a stay. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled the execution could go forward with precautions. Smith’s attorneys have sought a stay arguing that the pandemic and the prohibition on in-person prison visits had made it difficult for them to adequately represent him. They