The state killed Gregory Hunt Tuesday at 6:26 p.m., according to a release from the governor’s office.
A jury in 1990 convicted Hunt on two charges of murder during sexual abuse and one charge of murder during a robbery for the 1988 slaying of Karen Lane.
The jury voted 11-1 in favor of the death penalty, enough to impose the sentence. Alabama is one of only two states that allow the death penalty to be invoked by a non-unanimous jury.
A group opposed to the death penalty delivered a petition to Ivey Monday morning asking to halt the execution partly because Hunt ministered to other inmates on death row.
“Gregory Hunt spent more time on death row than Karen spent alive,” said Attorney General Steve Marshall in a statement Wednesday. “If he had any real evidence of innocence, he had more than three decades to present it. He did not. What he and his supporters offered instead was a last-minute spectacle aimed at rewriting history and distracting from the truth.
“My team never gave up. Karen deserves more than silence. She deserves to be remembered for who she was, and yet some have made this case about her killer, barely mentioning her name. That is not justice. That is a disgrace.”
This is the fifth time the state has executed an inmate by nitrogen hypoxia asphyxiation, a relatively new method of execution that the state has pioneered and has drawn criticism from some as individuals have been seen writhing in response to the gas.
Marshall emphasized in the release that the method is “humane and effective,” and the state has previously said any distress shown by the persons being killed is due to them holding their breath, not the gas.
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