The State of Alabama plans to execute Anthony Boyd, 54, by nitrogen suffocation on October 23.
Anthony Boyd was just 21 and had no significant prior criminal history when he was arrested with three other people—Shawn Ingram, Quintay Cox, and Marcel Ackles—and charged as an accomplice in the 1993 killing of Gregory Huguley in Talladega County, Alabama.
The rural county with a population of 74,000 residents was responsible for about 10% of Alabama’s death sentences in the 1980s and 90s—when Alabama had the nation’s highest per capita death sentencing rate, according to Bolts. Half of those sentenced to death from Talladega County were Black, a 2001 investigation found.
Unreliable Evidence
Then-District Attorney Robert Rumsey led the prosecution of Anthony Boyd and his co-defendants. During his two decades as Talladega’s top prosecutor, he sent 12 people to death row.
Even according to the prosecution’s theory, Mr. Boyd was far from the most culpable of the four co-defendants. The State argued that Mr. Boyd taped the victim’s legs after Shawn Ingram—who was armed with a handgun—ordered him to do so.
At trial, the prosecution relied on the testimony of co-defendant Quintay Cox, who testified against Mr. Boyd after he was threatened with the death penalty, according to court filings.
Bolts points out that Mr. Cox, who could afford to hire a private attorney, reached an agreement with the State to testify against his three co-defendants in exchange for a parole-eligible sentence. The other three all were sentenced to die in prison (two by execution), while Mr. Cox was released in 2009.
At Mr. Boyd’s trial, Mr. Cox testified he gave a handgun to Shawn Ingram, who kidnapped the victim at gunpoint and forced him into a van driven by Mr. Ackles. Mr. Ingram instructed Mr. Ackles to purchase a small container of gasoline, ordered the others to tape the victim, poured gas on the victim, and lit the gas on fire.
Mr. Ingram was the only one armed, and Mr. Cox testified he was afraid Mr. Ingram would shoot him if he did not follow his instructions. Shawn Ingram was convicted and sentenced to death.
Mr. Cox’s testimony was the only direct evidence of Mr. Boyd’s participation in the killing.
No forensic evidence connected Mr. Boyd to the crime—there were no fingerprints and, court filings note, while the State presented evidence of duct tape on the victim’s arms and mouth and near his head, there was no evidence that duct tape was found on or near the victim’s legs.
Ineffective Defense
Mr. Boyd was too poor to hire an attorney. According to court filings, the court appointed a defense lawyer who had passed the bar only four months prior to trial and had no trial experience, and another, William Willingham, who Bolts reports had worked for Robert Rumsey in the DA’s office for four years and told reporters in 2001 that Rumsey was “one of the best.”
Until 1999, appointed attorneys were paid only $40 per hour for in-court work and $20 for out-of-court work, and compensation for out-of-court work was capped at $1,000. Bolts reports that Mr. Willingham told the judge before Mr. Boyd’s trial that he “just didn’t have any time to prepare for it.”
Last month, Mr. Willingham told Bolts that appointed lawyers were not paid enough to defend capital cases at the time. “We had to pay rent, keep the lights on, those kinds of things,” he said. “So we were kind of handcuffed, and as far as resources and how much time we can spend on cases.”
Mr. Boyd asserted he was innocent and several witnesses testified he was at a party on the night of the crime, but after a two-day trial, jurors convicted him of capital murder.
The same day, the jury voted 10-2 to recommend the death penalty. That non-unanimous verdict would have prohibited a death sentence for Mr. Boyd in nearly every other state.
The sentencing judge miscalculated Mr. Boyd’s age at the time of the offense and, as a result, found only one statutory mitigating circumstance—that Mr. Boyd had no significant prior criminal history.
The death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the worst offenders, but the judge sentenced Mr. Boyd to death even though the State’s own evidence showed he was not even the worst of the four co-defendants.
Procedural Bars
Anthony Boyd challenged his conviction and sentence, arguing among other things in a postconviction petition that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and present additional alibi evidence.
But after initially scheduling an evidentiary hearing where Mr. Boyd’s new counsel could present that evidence, the trial court summarily dismissed his postconviction petition on procedural grounds.
As a result, even though witnesses raised doubts about the prosecution’s case, no state or federal court has heard evidence supporting Mr. Boyd’s innocence and his constitutional claims that require a new trial.