Motion filed for Mills’ date of execution

By P.J. Gossett
General manager
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a motion in the Alabama Supreme Court on Monday, Jan. 29, for an execution warrant for Jamie Ray Mills, the convicted murderer of Floyd and Vera Hill of Guin, nearly 20 years ago. The motion was filed to have a date set for Mills’ execution. As of press time Monday, Feb. 5, that date has not been set.
While the motion mentions Mills is scheduled for lethal injection, it was filed four days after the state executed Kenneth Eugene Smith by nitrogen hypoxia, the first time the method was used, not only in the state, but the nation. The choice between nitrogen and lethal injection is made by each death row inmate, according to the Code of Alabama, Section 15-18-82.1.
According to a list found on the Alabama Department of Corrections’ website, no one from Marion County has ever been put to death by the state since 1927, when the records began on the website list.
However, there are currently two from Marion County on death row: Mills and David Lee Roberts. Additionally, death row inmate Wilson Billy Robitaille is listed as being from Cullman County, but the crime committed happened in Marion County.
Inquiries to the Alabama Department of Corrections and Marshall’s office regarding the method Roberts and Robitaille have chosen were not answered by press time.
Mills was convicted of three counts of capital murder, according to court documents. On June 24, 2004, Mills and his common-law wife, JoAnn Mills, went to the home of Floyd and Vera Hill on County Road 54 in Guin with the intent of robbing them.
Later that evening, Vera, 72, and Floyd, 87, were found beaten with head trauma. Floyd was pronounced dead on the scene. Vera died months later on Sept. 12, 2004, and according to the autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be complications of blunt head trauma.
Jamie and JoAnn were arrested at home on June 25, 2004, where multiple objects were found used in the beating of the Hills. After being found guilty on three counts of capital murder on Aug. 23, 2007, the jury gave a sentence of death recommendation 11-1. Jamie was then given a death sentence on Sept. 14, 2007, by Marion County Circuit Judge John Bentley