Jamie Mills: Alabama sets execution date for convict who killed elderly couple amid robbery in 2004
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.
ATMORE, ALABAMA: Alabama is preparing for the execution of Jamie Mills, 50, who was convicted in the 2004 slaying of an elderly couple during a robbery.
Governor Kay Ivey has scheduled the execution by lethal injection for May 30, 2024, following authorization from the Alabama Supreme Court.
Tragic details emerge in 2004 Guin couple slaying
Jamie Mills was found guilty of capital murder in the deaths of Floyd Hill and Vera Mills in Guin, a town in Marion County with approximately 2,000 residents.
Prosecutors stated that the suspect and his wife visited the couple's home, where he assaulted them and stole $140 along with medications.
Floyd Hill, 87, succumbed to blunt and sharp-force injuries to his head and neck, while Vera Mills, 72, died 12 weeks later due to complications of head trauma, as detailed in court filings from the attorney general's office.
Alabama prepares for Jamie Mills' execution with lethal injection over nitrogen gas
Alabama, having executed convict Kenneth Smith, 58, on Thursday, January 25, through the nation's first use of nitrogen gas for the 1988 murder-for-hire of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, 45, plans to move forward with Mills' execution via lethal injection.
In March 1988, Elizabeth Sennett was found dead in her Colbert County home, having been stabbed eight times in the chest and once on each side of the neck.
Prosecutors reportedly alleged that Kenneth Eugene Smith and another man were paid $1,000 each by her husband, Rev Charles Sennett, who was in significant debt and wanted insurance money.
Legal battle unfolds over alleged concealment of plea deal in Jamie Mills case
Legal proceedings leading to Mills' execution have not been without controversy. His attorneys had petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court to reject the execution date request, citing an ongoing claim of prosecutorial misconduct in the case, according to US News.
In a petition to a Marion County judge in March, Jamie Mills' legal team alleged that prosecutors had concealed a plea deal with his wife, which allegedly spared her from a potential death sentence.
She served as the key prosecution witness in Mills' trial. However, the attorney general's office disputed the existence of a pretrial agreement.
