Alabama asks U.S. Supreme Court to clear the way for Thursday execution

Torrey Twayne McNabb (ADOC)

Alabama has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to clear the way for the Thursday execution of death row inmate Torrey Twane McNabb, who was convicted in the shooting death of a Montgomery police officer.

Chief U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins in Montgomery had issued a stay of execution for McNabb on Monday. But the Attorney General's Office had quickly appealed to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to unblock the stay so the execution could take place.

A three-member panel of the appeals court on Wednesday said it could find no cause to lift Watkins' order. The attorney general's office then appealed Wednesday afternoon to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Alabama has already carried out four executions using this protocol," the AG states in its appeal to the Supreme Supreme. "Three of those executed inmates were co-plaintiffs in this case, and their stay requests were denied by both this Court and the Eleventh Circuit."

The execution was scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

McNabb has spent the last 18 years on death row, after being convicted of fatally shooting Montgomery police officer Anderson Gordon in September 1997. McNabb was convicted on two capital murder counts-- one for killing Gordon while he was on duty, and one for killing him as Gordon sat in his patrol car. McNabb also was found guilty of two additional counts of attempted murder.

The Attorney General's Office could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is the second time an execution has been stayed this month.

Death row inmate Jeffrey Lynn Borden, 56, was granted a stay of his Oct. 5 execution. Borden was sentenced to death for the Christmas Eve 1993 shooting deaths of his estranged wife and her father in Gardendale.

Both McNabb and Borden are part of an inmate lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Alabama's lethal injection drug combination. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 6 had ordered Watkins to hold an evidentiary hearing in that lawsuit regarding the claims.

Watkins has not yet set a date for that hearing.

Updated at 5:45 p.m. Oct. 18 to add that the AG's office plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court

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