Mills executed for 2004 double murder

By Luke Brantley
Staff writer

ATMORE — Jamie Ray Mills was executed by lethal injection at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility last Thursday night, May 30, 2024.
In a 2007 trial, Mills was found guilty of the 2004 murders of Floyd and Vera Hill in Guin.
Mills and his common law wife, JoAnn, robbed Floyd and Vera before Mills attacked and murdered Floyd. Vera later died from the trauma she received, as well. Objects which Mills used included a machete, tire tool and a ball-peen hammer.
The jury in that trial voted 11-1 to recommend the death penalty, and the judge agreed during sentencing.
The warrant for his execution was issued by the Supreme Court of Alabama back in March and was scheduled for the month of May, which Mills appealed.
Mills sought a stay of execution, claiming the “State’s practice of restraining its condemned prisoners on a gurney before execution will violate his constitutional right to access the courts, to counsel, to due process and against cruel and unusual punishment.”
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the motion, stating in its opinion that Mills “has not established that he is substantially likely to succeed on the merits of his appeal or that the equities favor a stay of execution at this late stage.”
Mills filed another appeal back in 2017 which was also rejected, in which he claimed the district attorney prosecuting his case failed to disclose critical information involving the testimony of his common law wife, JoAnn, during the trial.  
JoAnn had testified against Mills during his 2007 trial, and she later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
Mills claimed JoAnn perjured herself by claiming she denied testifying against him to get a more lenient sentence for herself.
According to Mills, then Marion and Winston County District Attorney Jack Bostick made false claims that no deal was ever made between JoAnn and the court in exchange for her testimony.
After reviewing the evidence submitted by Mills, which included several conversations between JoAnn’s attorney, Tony Glenn, and Bostick about a plea deal in exchange for her testimony, the Northern District of Alabama found the evidence of perjury was insufficient and, “No reasonable jurist could conclude that the district court abused its discretion,” in 2020.
The court also found that Mills did not submit this evidence “within a reasonable time,” which also impacted the decision to deny his appeal.
Mills appealed that ruling, but the 11th Circuit upheld the district court’s ruling last Tuesday, May 28. Mills then appealed the rulings to the Supreme Court.
The full opinions can be found at ca11.uscourts.gov/published-opinions-log.
A petition was submitted to the governor’s office by multiple anti-death penalty organizations in the days leading up to Mills’ execution.
Petitioners also expressed objections to Alabama’s new method of execution, nitrogen hypoxia, and demanded greater transparency about state executions.
Demonstrations against Mills’ execution and the death penalty were held on the steps of the state capital last week as the petitions were delivered to the governor’s office.
The petition repeated claims that the prosecution failed to disclose JoAnn’s plea deal, the same claims that were ultimately struck down in court.
Despite the protests and after his appeals were denied by the U.S. Supreme Court, Mills’ execution proceeded as planned with no reported complications last Thursday night, May 30, at 6 p.m. after he spent 17 years on death row.
He was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m.