Post by CCADP on Aug 2, 2005 8:15:31 GMT -5
Anti-government extremist set for execution Thursday
An anti-government extremist whose common-law wife was executed in 2002
for the murder of an Opelika police officer is scheduled to be put to
death this week for the same killing.
George Sibley Jr. is set to be executed Thursday by lethal injection for
the murder of Officer Roger Motley in a Wal-Mart parking lot in 1993.
While Sibley has renounced his U.S. citizenship and claimed courts don't
have any jurisdiction over him, a state's attorney said Monday he expects
Sibley to ask a court to block his execution.
"If something is filed, and we certainly anticipate it will be, we'll file
the appropriate response," said Clay Crenshaw, an assistant attorney
general.
Sibley is acting as his own lawyer, and earlier this month filed a
handwritten petition that was rejected by the Alabama Supreme Court. But
lawyers with the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative, which
represents death row inmates, have been talking with Sibley about his
options.
Sibley, 62, and Lynda Lyon Block, 54, were sentenced to death for killing
Motley in a burst of gunfire. The police officer was shot to death as he
approached the car of the couple after a passer-by said a child in the car
had asked for help. Block's 9-year-old son was in the car, and Sibley and
Block claimed they fired at the officer in self-defense. Witnesses said
Sibley fired first and Block joined in after the officer was wounded.
At the time, the couple was fleeing from Orlando, Fla., to avoid being
sentenced on assault convictions in the stabbing of Block's 79-year-old
former husband during an argument.
Block was put to death in May 2002 after she and Sibley failed to file
appeals for years. Sibley's scheduled execution in November of that year
was stopped two days before he was to die when he finally filed an appeal.
The Birmingham News reported Monday that earlier this month Sibley filed a
13-page petition, handwritten on notebook paper, that asked the Alabama
Supreme Court to block his execution.
"I contend that I am innocent of the crime charged and that the conviction
and sentence against me are unconstitutional contrivances from which I am
due relief," Sibley wrote. Sibley wrote that Lyons fired the deadly shot,
not him.
The court, however, denied his request.
Sibley's footnoted petition is a mix of legal jargon and bizarre prose. He
claims his lawyers failed him and Alabama courts have acted illegally.
Motley's widow, Juanita Motley Kirkwood, said she plans to attend Sibley's
execution, just as she did Block's. She has given up on trying to
understand the beliefs they tried to use to justify the killing.
"I can't be interested in their reasoning for it because it's so bizarre,"
she said.
(source: Associated Press)
An anti-government extremist whose common-law wife was executed in 2002
for the murder of an Opelika police officer is scheduled to be put to
death this week for the same killing.
George Sibley Jr. is set to be executed Thursday by lethal injection for
the murder of Officer Roger Motley in a Wal-Mart parking lot in 1993.
While Sibley has renounced his U.S. citizenship and claimed courts don't
have any jurisdiction over him, a state's attorney said Monday he expects
Sibley to ask a court to block his execution.
"If something is filed, and we certainly anticipate it will be, we'll file
the appropriate response," said Clay Crenshaw, an assistant attorney
general.
Sibley is acting as his own lawyer, and earlier this month filed a
handwritten petition that was rejected by the Alabama Supreme Court. But
lawyers with the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative, which
represents death row inmates, have been talking with Sibley about his
options.
Sibley, 62, and Lynda Lyon Block, 54, were sentenced to death for killing
Motley in a burst of gunfire. The police officer was shot to death as he
approached the car of the couple after a passer-by said a child in the car
had asked for help. Block's 9-year-old son was in the car, and Sibley and
Block claimed they fired at the officer in self-defense. Witnesses said
Sibley fired first and Block joined in after the officer was wounded.
At the time, the couple was fleeing from Orlando, Fla., to avoid being
sentenced on assault convictions in the stabbing of Block's 79-year-old
former husband during an argument.
Block was put to death in May 2002 after she and Sibley failed to file
appeals for years. Sibley's scheduled execution in November of that year
was stopped two days before he was to die when he finally filed an appeal.
The Birmingham News reported Monday that earlier this month Sibley filed a
13-page petition, handwritten on notebook paper, that asked the Alabama
Supreme Court to block his execution.
"I contend that I am innocent of the crime charged and that the conviction
and sentence against me are unconstitutional contrivances from which I am
due relief," Sibley wrote. Sibley wrote that Lyons fired the deadly shot,
not him.
The court, however, denied his request.
Sibley's footnoted petition is a mix of legal jargon and bizarre prose. He
claims his lawyers failed him and Alabama courts have acted illegally.
Motley's widow, Juanita Motley Kirkwood, said she plans to attend Sibley's
execution, just as she did Block's. She has given up on trying to
understand the beliefs they tried to use to justify the killing.
"I can't be interested in their reasoning for it because it's so bizarre,"
she said.
(source: Associated Press)