Alabama executes death row inmate via nitrogen gas, 37 years post his girlfriend's murder
Gregory Hunt was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m. on Tuesday at a south Alabama prison. Strapped to a gurney Hunt appeared to give a thumbs-up sign
A man found guilty of brutally murdering a woman nearly 37 years ago was executed on Tuesday night in Alabama, marking the country's sixth execution using nitrogen gas.
Gregory Hunt was declared dead at 6:26 p. m. on Tuesday at a prison in southern Alabama. Strapped to a gurney with a blue-rimmed mask covering his entire face, Hunt didn't utter any final words but seemed to give a thumbs-up sign and a peace sign with his fingers before the gas started flowing.
It was unclear when the gas began.
Hunt briefly shook, gasped, and lifted his head off the gurney. He let out a moan around 5:59 p m. and raised his feet, reports the Mirror US.
He took a series of four or more gasping breaths with long pauses in between, and made no visible movements after 6:05 p. m.
The execution in Alabama is one of four that had been scheduled this week across the United States. Executions are also slated in Florida and South Carolina.
A judge in Oklahoma issued a temporary stay for an execution in that state on Monday, but the state attorney general is seeking to have it lifted.
Hunt was convicted of killing Karen Lane, a woman he had been dating for about a month, according to court records. Lane was 32 when she was murdered on Aug. 2, 1988, in the Cordova apartment she shared with a woman who was Hunt's cousin.
Prosecutors asserted Hunt broke into her apartment and murdered her following sexual abuse. An autopsy physician testified she succumbed to blunt force trauma, with Lane suffering approximately 60 wounds, including 20 to her head.
A jury on June 19, 1990, convicted Hunt of capital murder amid sexual abuse and burglary. By an 11-1 vote, jurors proposed the death penalty, which was enforced by a judge.
Hunt's last bid for execution reprieve hinged on allegations that prosecutors misled the jury regarding the evidence of sexual abuse – a key factor in the case qualifying as a capital offense.
Representing himself, Hunt contended to the U.S. Supreme Court that a prosecutor falsely informed the jury of cervical mucus present on a broomstick found by Hunt's body, despite the victim's lack of a cervix due to a prior hysterectomy. The Alabama attorney general's office dismissed the allegation as groundless, stating any prosecutorial error had no impact on the validity of the conviction.
In a telephone interview from incarceration last month, Hunt didn't deny killing Lane but insisted he did not sexually assault her. He spoke of being transformed by his time in prison: "Karen didn't deserve what happened to her," Hunt remarked.
Hunt admitted that on the crime's night, his jealousy spiked upon seeing Lane with another man, driven by alcohol and drugs.
"You have your come-to-Jesus moment. Of course, after the fact, you can't believe what has happened. You can't believe you were part of it and did it," Hunt reflected.
Hunt, who entered death row in Alabama back in 1990 after being born in 1960, ranks today as one of the state's longest-standing death row inmates. For him, prison morphed into his "hospital" for mending a shattered psyche, and since 1988, he's spearheaded a Bible class that draws upwards of twenty attendees.
"Just trying to be a light in a dark place, trying to tell people if I can change, they can too... become people of love instead of hate," he shared.
"The way she was killed is just devastating," said Denise Gurganus, Lane's sister, during a 2014 vigil honoring crime victims; she spoke with WBRC-TV. "It's hard enough to lose a family member to death, but when it's this gruesome."
The Alabama attorney general's office, urging justices to dismiss Hunt's plea for an execution reprieve, pointed out that Hunt's tenure on death row actually surpasses the lifespan of the victim, Lane.
Alabama last year led the nation in utilizing nitrogen gas for an execution, a method that has been implemented in five executions to date—four within Alabama and one in Louisiana. During this process, the inmate is forced to inhale pure nitrogen through a gas mask, which eliminates the oxygen necessary for survival.
Hunt had selected nitrogen as his preferred method of execution. He made this choice before Alabama had established procedures for using gas.
Alabama also gives inmates the option to choose lethal injection or the electric chair.
