Alabama executes Robert Melson, on death row for 21 years
By
Niles Niemuth
10 June 2017
The state of Alabama carried out the 13th state sanctioned killing of the year in United States Thursday night in its death chamber at Holman Correctional Facility.
Robert Melson, a 46-year-old African American man, was killed by an injection of three drugs, including midazolam, which has been used in recent so-called botched executions. The execution went forward after the US Supreme Court denied his final request for a stay, despite his attorney’s concerns over the possible negative effects of the drug.
Midazolam, the first drug in the process, was injected into Melson’s veins at 9:59 p.m. His attorneys report that as the drug entered his body Melson’s arms began to shake against the restraints which held him to the death bed. As the drug took effect his breathing became labored and his chest moved up and down before slowing. Ten minutes after the first injection his breathing had slowed to point at which it was imperceptible.
It took just over half an hour from the time that Melson’s death warrant was read to out to the time that prison medical staff pronounced him dead at 10:27 p.m.
Melson spent 21 years on death row after he was convicted of shooting and killing three fast food restaurant workers in 1994 during a robbery. He maintained his innocence from the time of his arrest until his death.
The details of Melson’s case point to the state sanctioned murder of an innocent man on the basis of a police frame-up.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a fourth shooting victim who survived the holdup identified Cuhuatemoc “Tempo” Peraita, a former employee at the restaurant, as one of the attackers. He could only identify the accomplice as a “black…