Gov. Kay Ivey sets late May execution date for Jamie Ray Mills

Gov. Kay Ivey has scheduled an execution in late May for death row inmate Jamie Ray Mills for the 2004 double murder of Floyd and Vera Hill.

Ivey Wednesday  sent a letter to Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, directing him to conduct the execution at a time between midnight on May 30 and 6 a.m. on May 31.

“Although I have no current plans to grant clemency in this case, I retain my authority under the Constitution of the state of Alabama to grant reprieve or commutation, if necessary, at any time before the execution is carried out,” Ivey stated in what amounts to a standard letter for an execution.

Mills execution will be the second in the state this year. DOC executed Kenneth Eugene Smith by nitrogen gas on Jan. 25. Media witnesses saw Smith writhing and gasping for several minutes during the execution.

The Alabama Attorney General’s Office filed a motion on Jan. 29 to set the execution.

“There is no doubt that Mills committed those offenses,” the Alabama attorney general’s office wrote in its filing. “Mills’s convictions and sentence are final because he has completed his direct appeal, state post-conviction review, and federal habeas review. Accordingly, it is time for this death sentence to be carried out.”

The Supreme Court granted the motion March 20.

A jury convicted Mills, 50, in 2007 by a vote of 11-1. According to court records, Mills and his common-law wife entered the Hill residence in Guin in Marion County in December 2004, telling the couple they wanted to make a call. Mills then beat the couple with a hammer and proceeded to rob their home.