Every Inmate on ALABAMA's DEATH ROW Waiting to be EXECUTED | Ep. 11

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Over 160 people are waiting to be executed on Alabama's death row. Michael Wayne Reynolds. Reynolds is on death row for the May 2003 brutal triple capital murder of a North Gaddon family. On May 25, 2003, Reynolds entered the home of the Martin family on Tidmore Bend Road in North Gadon. During a robbery for money, he murdered all three residents.

[00:00:25]Charles Chuck Martin, 38, stabbed 11 times during a struggle in the kitchen.

[00:00:30]Melinda Martin, 31, she was stabbed 24 times in a bedroom. And Savannah Martin, 8 years old, the couple's young daughter, who was also stabbed to death.

[00:00:41]After the killings, Reynolds dowsed the victim's bodies with gasoline and set them on fire in an attempt to cover up the crime. He fled the scene with Melindaspur and the cordless telephone.

[00:00:51]Reynolds was convicted in October 2007 on five counts of capital murder. These charges included murder of two or more persons pursuant to a single scheme, murder during the course of a first-degree robbery, and murder of a child under the age of 14. The jury recommended a death sentence by a unanimous 12 to zero vote, which the trial judge followed in December 2007.

[00:01:16]Reynolds has spent years challenging his conviction through state and federal appeals. His appeals frequently centered on his former girlfriend, Marcy West, who testified that she drove him to the scene and witnessed parts of the attack.

[00:01:29]Reynolds's defense team argued that the state withheld evidence of a deal for leniency regarding West's own drug charges in exchange for her testimony.

[00:01:39]Anthony Lee Stanley. Stanley is on death row for the June 2005 robbery and brutal murder of 52year-old Henry Earl Smith in Tuscambia. According to trial evidence, Stanley and his wife Shelley lured Smith to their apartment under the guise of paying him for medication. Upon Smith's arrival, Stanley attacked him with an aluminum baseball bat, striking him multiple times in the face and body.

[00:02:04]After knocking Smith to the floor, Stanley used steak knife to stab the victim 36 times in the back while Smith begged for his life. The crime was discovered two days later when the landlord's son entered the apartment and found Smith's body rolled in a comforter. Stanley was convicted of capital murder in April 2007. His case is a notable example of Alabama's former practice of judicial override. During the penalty phase, the jury voted 8 to4 to recommend the sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, the judge overturned the jury's recommendation and sentenced Stanley to death, citing the gruesome and barbaric nature of the crime. His wife, Shelley, entered the plea deal and she was sentenced to life in prison. Kim Vanpelt. Pelt is on death row for the November 2004 capital murder of his wife Sandra Marie Osmond Vanpelt in Tuscambia. The case gained national attention because the couple had met in an internet chat room and had been married for only 13 days at the time of the murder. Prosecutors established that Vanpelt killed his wife for pecuniary gain. Just three days after the wedding, he took out a $300,000 life insurance policy on her and then he named himself as the sole beneficiary. Sandra died from a combination of head injuries and suffocation. Forensic investigators used Luminol to discover blood stains matching the victim in the master bedroom of the couple's mobile home.

[00:03:32]After killing her, Vanpelt reported her missing, claiming she had never returned from running errands. Her nude body was discovered on Thanksgiving Day 2004, dumped on the side of a road in Marian County. In December 2006, a Colbert County jury convicted Vanpelt of capital murder. By a 10 to2 vote, the jury recommended the death penalty. Circuit Judge Jackie Hatcher followed the recommendation and sentenced Vanpelt to death on March 6, 2007. As of April 2026, Vanpelt remains on death row at Hullman Correctional Facility. His numerous appeals, including claims of ineffective counsel and suppressed evidence, have been consistently denied by the Alabama Supreme Court and the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. In 2024, Vanpelt petitioned to intervene in legal proceedings regarding nitrogen hypoxia, the state's newest execution method, signaling he may be considering it for his own execution. WA Brown.

[00:04:30]Brown is on death row for the 2001 capital murder of his girlfriend and her mother in Taladigga County. In March 2001, Brown murdered Cheriot Jameson, 26, and her mother, Doy Jameson, 49, in the home they shared. Both victims were brutally beaten to death, suffering multiple traumatic head injuries from what investigators believed was a hammer. Following the murders, Brown stole Doy's car and fled to Cleveland, Ohio with Jeria's three young children.

[00:05:00]He was captured in Cleveland after a 25-hour standoff with a SWAT team during which he barricaded himself in a house before eventually surrendering to authorities. The jury recommended the death penalty by attempted to vote, a recommendation that was upheld by circuit judge Bo Haulingsworth. At his sentencing, Brown continued to maintain his innocence. Alfonso Morris. Morris is on death row for the February 25, 1997 capital murder of 85year-old Miriam Rochester in Birmingham, Jefferson County. According to trial records and court documents, Morris entered Rochester's East Lake home to commit a robbery. The man bludgeoned Rochester to death inside her residence. Medical evidence indicated she was frail and died from a severe beating. Hours after the crime, police caught Morris with the victim's jewelry in his pocket and her blood on his shoe. Investigators also found a cigarette butt inside the victim's home containing his DNA. The killing was classified as capital because it occurred during the commission of a first-degree burglary and a first-degree robbery. Morris has had three separate trials due to various legal reversals. His first trial was in 2003. He was convicted and sentenced to death, but the conviction was overturned by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals because he had been denied funds to hire an independent mental health expert. His second trial was in April 2008. This trial ended in a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

[00:06:32]His third trial took place in May 2008 and Morris was again convicted of capital murder. The jury recommended the death penalty by attempted to vote and circuit judge Tommy Nale finalized the sentence on June 20, 2008. Morris remains incarcerated on death row at Hullman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

[00:06:51]His appeals for postconviction relief have been consistently denied. Most recently in August 2024, his federal habius corpus petition was reviewed by the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. David Phillip Wilson. Wilson is on death row for the 2004 robbery and capital murder of 64 year old Duey Walker in Dotton Houston County. On April 13, 2004, Wilson and three accompllices broke into Dwey Walker's home. Prosecutors argued the group targeted Walker to steal his customized van and a collection of rare coins. During the burglary, Walker was fatally beaten and strangled. Forensic evidence showed Walker suffered numerous injuries. And investigators stated that Wilson confessed to hitting Walker with a bat and choking him with an extension cord. Three others, Kitty Cordley, Michael Ray Jackson, and Matthew Marsh, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 23 to 25 years for their roles in the crime. Wilson was convicted of capital murder in December 2007 and sentenced to death in January 2008. By attented to vote, the jury recommended a death sentence which the circuit court accepted. A major controversy in Wilson's case involves a confessional letter allegedly written in 2004 by his accomplice Kitty Cordley. In this letter, Cordley claimed she was the one who beat Walker with a baseball bat until he fell. Although prosecutors possessed this letter before Wilson's trial, it was not disclosed to his defense team for nearly 20 years. In 2023, a federal judge ordered the state to turn over the letter, noting that while Wilson's own confession was damning, the accomplice's admission of a greater role could have influenced the jury's sentencing recommendation. His current legal team, led by Professor Bernard Harkort, is challenging his conviction through a habius corpus petition based on the withheld evidence and claims of ineffective counsel regarding his Asperger syndrome diagnosis. Wilson has also filed a lawsuit to block Alabama from executing him via nitrogen hypoxia, citing chronic lung problems and sensory sensitivities that he argues would make the method inhumane for him. Mario Dion Woodward Woodward is on death row for the September 28, 2006 capital murder of Montgomery police officer Keat Hoots.

[00:09:13]The murder occurred during a routine traffic stop. When officer Hoots approached Woodward's vehicle, Woodward shot him in the jaw, severing his spine.

[00:09:22]As the officer lay on the ground, Woodward shot him four more times.

[00:09:26]Officer Hoots died from his injuries two days later. Following the shooting, Woodward fled to Georgia, where he was captured by federal marshals in Atlanta the next day. He was convicted on two counts of capital murder, intentionally killing an on-duty police officer and murder committed by firing a weapon from inside a vehicle. Woodward remains incarcerated on death row at Hullman Correctional Facility in Atour. His numerous appeals, including a 2018 request for a rehearing based on biometric analysis of a dash cam footage, have been denied by state and federal courts. James Scott Laren Larjin is on the throw for the March 15, 2007 capital murders of his parents, Jimmy, 68, and Peggy, 56, in their Woodland Forest home in Tuscaloosa. Large had recently moved back into his parents' home after a stay in a rehabilitation facility. He shot both of his parents multiple times at close range with a 22 caliber rifle. He attempted to clean up the crime scene before shoving their bodies down the stairs leading to the cellar. The murders were classified as capital offenses because they occurred during a first-degree robbery and they were committed pursuant to a single scheme. Immediately after the killings, he stole his parents' cash, credit cards, and a collection of prescription pills. He spent the next 24 hours on a crack cocaine binge using their credit cards to buy video game systems, which he then traded for more drugs. Large was convicted of two counts of capital murder in August 2009 and the jury recommended the death penalty by an 11 to1 vote. During the penalty phase, prosecutors emphasized that he showed no remorse for his actions, allegedly telling a police investigator that the killings were not murder, not in the coldblooded sense. Calvin McMillan.

[00:11:17]McMillan is on death row for the August 29, 2007 capital murder of 23-year-old James Brian Martin in a Walmart parking lot in Milbrook, Elmore County. McMillan was 18 years old at the time of the offense. He approached Martin with the intent to steal his pickup truck.

[00:11:35]Martin, a father of two, had stopped at Walmart to purchase diapers and wipes on his way home from a Montgomery biscuit baseball game. McMillan shot Martin as he was starting his truck, then pulled him from the vehicle and fired additional shots into him before fleeing in the stolen truck. Police captured McMillan the following day. They found the victim's halfeaten package of Reese's cups in McMillan's pocket and a banking document in the truck where McMillan had already added his own signature to the loan papers. During the penalty phase, the jury voted 8 to4 to recommend life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Circuit Judge John Bush overrode the jury's recommendation and sentenced McMillan to death. The judge noted the savagery of the crime and ruled that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating factor of McMillan's young age. McMillan remains incarcerated at Holman Correctional Facility. In 2020, the US Supreme Court declined to hear his petition to vacate his death sentence on the grounds that judicial overrides are unconstitutional.

[00:12:40]Christy Michelle Scott. Scott is on death row for the 2008 arson murder of her six-year-old autistic son, Mason Scott. On August 16th, 2008, a fire broke out of the family home in Russellville while Scott's husband was away. Scott escaped the burning house with her younger son, Noah, but left Mason inside. Firefighters later discovered Mason's body. A medical examiner testified he was burned alive after likely being overcome by smoke inhalation. Prosecutors established that Scott intentionally set the fire to collect insurance money. The investigation revealed she had purchased a $100,000 life insurance policy on Mason just 12 hours before his death and held another $75,000 policy. More than 70 witnesses testified during the trial, which remains one of the longest in Franklin County history. Testimony indicated the fire was deliberately set in the bedroom Mason shared with his brother. In July 2009, a jury convicted Scott of three counts of capital murder.

[00:13:45]During the penalty phase, the jury voted 7 to 5 to recommend the sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Circuit Judge Terry Dempsey overrode the jury's recommendation and sentenced Scott to death on August 5, 2009. The judge stated that justice must be served given the horrific nature of a mother killing her own child for money.

[00:14:06]Scott is currently incarcerated at the Jula Twiler Prison for women. Her death sentence was upheld by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in 2012 and by the Alabama Supreme Court in 2014. Please hit that subscribe button if you like my channel. See you next time.