Federal appeals court upholds stay of Alabama inmate Matthew Reeves' execution

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a stay of execution for an inmate who said the Alabama Department of Corrections did not give him a proper way to choose another execution method.

In a 29-page ruling, the judges — U.S. Circuit Judges Adalberto Jordan; Charles Wilson, and Elizabeth Branch — said they found no reason to overturn U.S. District Judge Austin Huffaker's finding that the DOC failed to accommodate Matthew Reeves' intellectual disabilities when giving inmates the chance to die by nitrogen hypoxia. Huffaker ruled that violated the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

"Notably, this is not a case where a defendant has asked a district court to enjoin a state from executing him altogether, regardless of the method of execution," the three-judge panel wrote. "Mr. Reeves requested only that the court prevent the ADOC from executing him by any method other than the one he would have chosen but for the defendants’ alleged violation of the ADA, pending resolution of his ADA claim."

The Alabama attorney general's office said Wednesday it would appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Jordan was appointed by President Barack Obama; Wilson was appointed by President Bill Clinton, and Branch was appointed by President Donald Trump.

Reeves, 44, is scheduled to die on Thursday for the 1996 murder of Willie Johnson in Selma. According to court documents, Reeves and some companions were driving on Nov. 27, 1996, planning to commit a robbery, when their car broke down. Johnson gave Reeves a tow and a ride. Reeves shot Johnson as he stopped at a stoplight and told other passengers to search his pockets for money.

More: Alabama attorney general appeals decision blocking Matthew Reeves execution

Attorneys for Reeves say he has a tested IQ in the upper 60s or lower 70s, and that Reeves' counsel at his first trial failed to hire an expert who could testify to that fact, despite receiving funds to do so. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Reeves' claim of ineffective counsel last summer.

The current appeal rests on a law passed by the Alabama Legislature and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in 2018. The bill authorized DOC to conduct executions with nitrogen hypoxia, a method never used before. In June of that year, the DOC gave death row inmates a chance to decide whether they wanted to die by the new method. Inmates interviewed by the Advertiser in 2019 described a chaotic process, with inmates have a few days to contact attorneys on the matter.

Reeves did not opt into the execution method. His attorneys said Reeves' intellectual disabilities prevented him from understanding the choice before him, and that DOC had documentation of those issues and should have accommodated him. The attorney general's office argued Reeves never demonstrated that he would have chosen execution by nitrogen hypoxia and that he had not pleaded in time for accommodation.

Huffaker ruled earlier this month that DOC had been "on notice that Reeves had IQ scores in the high 60s or low 70s, subaverage intellectual functioning, and had been found to be functionally illiterate a mere two months before it handed him the election form and expected him to comprehend and utilize it without accommodation.”

Attorneys for the state have said in court that the nitrogen hypoxia method would be ready within the first four months of this year.

Attorneys for Alabama death row inmate Willie B. Smith, sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of Sharma Ruth Johnson, argued last year that his intellectual disabilities prevented him from understanding that he could choose another way to die. But the courts rejected his arguments. The state executed Smith on Oct. 21.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Federal appeals court upholds stay of Alabama inmate's execution