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EXECUTION SET AS STATE MISCONDUCT REVEALED

UA: USA 35.24
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This action ended on May 1, 2024
Jamie Mills is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on May 30, 2024. He was convicted in 2007 of the murder of an elderly couple in 2004 and sentenced to death after the jury voted 11-1 for the death penalty. There is new evidence that the key prosecution witness, then facing the same capital murder charges as Jamie Mills, was offered a plea deal in return for her testimony, something the state denied at the trial. We urge the Governor to recognize that executive clemency serves as a failsafe against injustices left unremedied by the courts and to commute this death sentence.  

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: May 30, 2024

take action:

  • Write a letter in your own words or using the sample below as a guide to one or both government officials listed. You can also email, fax, call or Tweet them.
  • Click here to let us know the actions you took on Urgent Action 35.24. It’s important to report because we share the total number with the officials we are trying to persuade and the people we are trying to help.

contact information:

The Office of Governor Kay Ivey

State Capitol, 600 Dexter Avenue

Montgomery, AL 36130, USA

Email: https://contact.governor.alabama.gov/contact.aspx

Fax: +1 334 353 0004

sample letter:

Dear Governor,

I am writing to urge you to grant clemency to Jamie Mills, who is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on May 30, 2024. In so doing, I do not seek to downplay the seriousness of violent crime or its devastating consequences.

It is deeply troubling that after over a decade and a half of the state denying that there was any plea deal promised to the prosecution’s key witness in return for her testimony, it would now seem false. That witness was herself facing capital murder charges in the same crime for which Jamie Mills now faces imminent execution. Her lawyer signed an affidavit earlier this year making clear that there was a deal agreed with the Marion County District Attorney in return for her testimony, that the capital murder charge, the death penalty, and the sentence of life without the possibility of parole would all be taken off the table if she testified against Jamie Mills.

The UN Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors require them to “respect and protect human dignity and uphold human rights, thus contributing to ensuring due process and the smooth functioning of the criminal justice system.” The District Attorney’s conduct in this case failed to comply with this standard, thereby undermining the integrity of the trial process, as well as confidence in the jury’s verdict. It is possible that, if the jury had known of any such deal, it would have weighed the testimony of this witness differently and may have reached a different verdict. International safeguards state that “Capital punishment may be imposed only when the guilt of the person charged is based upon clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts.”

Without a court fully examining this new evidence on the merits, executive clemency remains the only route for remedy. I urge you to take that path.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

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