An Alabama man convicted in the violent death of an elderly small-town couple will be executed Thursday after spending nearly two decades on death row.
This week, the 11th Circuit Court of Criminal Appeals denied two defense motions seeking a delay in the execution of Jamie Ray Mills, who maintains his innocence in the 2004 beating deaths of Floyd and Vera Hill. The defense can still request a stay from the United States Supreme Court.
In numerous appeals, Mills maintains that he was convicted based on the “perjured testimony” of his wife, JoAnn Mills, who he says witnessed the attack.
Jamie Mills, 50, argues that prosecutors failed to disclose a deal they made with JoAnn Mills, violated her constitutional rights and undermined the fairness of the trial and verdict, according to court documents filed last month.
Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm argues otherwise, saying in court papers that JoAnn Mills offered “graphic testimony” of what her husband did to the victims and what they both did “afterwards in an effort to cover up.” her footprints”.
Furthermore, the evidence against Jamie Mills was so “damning” that prosecutors would have been able to convict him even without JoAnn Mills’ testimony, Hamm says.
What led to the murder of Floyd and Vera Hill?
Jamie Mills had some bad luck in the weeks leading up to June 24, 2004. That was the day Floyd Hill, 87, and his wife of 55 years, Vera Hill, 72, were beaten to death in their home in the small town. of Guin, about 70 miles northwest of Birmingham.
Mills was out of work, had been jailed for falling behind on child support payments, his parents were dying and he had relapsed into drug use, court records show.
The theory presented at trial was that Jamie and JoAnn Mills were looking for a way to get more money for drugs and decided to rob the Hills because they were known to have large amounts of cash hidden in their home.
Jamie Mills began using drugs as a teenager, which he was introduced to by his parents, who were addicted to methamphetamine and dealt drugs in front of him and his siblings, according to a May 2017 court filing.
It wasn’t long before Mills became addicted to methamphetamine, using it almost every day. He managed to quit smoking in 2003, but began using methamphetamine again in the spring of 2004, citing “multiple stressors.”
Mills only had $14 to his name when he was arrested and was living off the savings he accumulated working as a mechanic.
Request to use a partner’s phone turns violent
Jamie and JoAnn Mills spent the night before the murders high on drugs after smoking methamphetamine, according to a sentencing order filed in 2007. They left the house at 5 p.m. the next day, stopping to buy cigarettes before heading to the house. the Hills, according to the order. says.
“Jamie told JoAnn that he was going to talk to a man about some money and for her to just follow his lead,” the warrant says. The Mills arrived at the Hills house and asked to borrow their phone. The Hills let them in and the four chatted easily, court records show.
Vera Hill mentioned that they had some items available for sale and insisted that JoAnn take a look at the items stored in their shed. JoAnn Mills and Vera Hill were walking back to the front of the house, toward the porch, when they heard a loud noise coming from the shed, where they had left Jamie Mills and Floyd Hill after taking a look at the items, court records. say.
JoAnne Mills turned to look and said she saw her husband with something raised over his shoulder “with both hands as if he were swinging something,” court documents say. The women rushed to the shed and found Floyd Hill on the ground.
Robbery gone wrong: Elderly couple hit repeatedly
Jamie Mills hit Vera Hill in the back of the head with a ball peen hammer as soon as the women entered, hitting her again when she tried to get up, the sentencing order says. JoAnn Mills testified that she was in a corner with her eyes closed, listening to the sound of the hammer repeatedly hitting the couple.
Mills handed his wife the hammer, a tire tool and a machete, and the couple padlocked the shed before returning to the Hills home and taking a locked tackle box, Vera Hill’s purse, a telephone and a police scanner, the document. says.
The Mills recovered $140 and some medications from the tackle box while driving back to their own home. The couple then called Benjie Howe, identified in court records as a friend who went to his house to buy some of the pain pills they got, according to court records.
The Mills packed the rest of the Hills’ belongings into a bag and placed it in their shed before leaving for the night. The couple headed to Jamie Mills’ father’s house to “play dominoes and spend the night,” according to court documents.
Returned homemy The next morning, he discovered that the dogs had opened the bag with the items. They placed the items in a duffel bag, including a bloody T-shirt and pants, and stored them in Jamie Mills’ vehicle, according to court records.
Officers intercepted Jamie and JoAnn Mills as they were leaving their home. Inside the couple’s car: items that had been stolen from the Hills and the suspected murder weapons.
What happened at the trial?
Mills’ trial attorney, John Wiley, argued to the jury that Mills did not deserve the death penalty for several reasons: Mills was on drugs and couldn’t know what he was doing, he was under extreme stress from things that were “building up in his against”, and had two sons then teenagers who were able to learn from their father how not to go down the wrong path.
Additionally, Wiley told jurors that it would be morally wrong for them to recommend the death penalty.
“A death sentence recommendation for Jamie Mills is that you kill another man, and that’s wrong, it’s immoral and it’s barbaric, you shouldn’t do it and if you do, you’ll be held accountable for it,” he said. them.
Jack Bostick, the district attorney who argued for the death penalty against Mills, told jurors that the crime went far beyond the limits of anything resembling a shooting death.
“This was up close, it was wild, it was personal: taking a ball peen hammer, a rusty machete, a rusty wrench and repeatedly cutting and punching two human beings, is not a random act of violence,” he said. “It’s deliberate, more than brutal, more than savage… It’s almost beyond imagination that someone could be so cruel to another human being that they would do that to them.”
He added: “The Hills didn’t stand a chance.”
“Unidentified” DNA found on recovered items and death sentence confirmed
Jamie Mills has spent the last 15 years trying and failing to overturn his execution, citing attorney failures, procedural errors and lack of evidence. He has primarily claimed that the state has not seriously investigated Benjie Howe.
Howe was known to borrow the Mills’ car from time to time and had “as much access to the vehicle on the day of the offense as Mr. Mills, having been in the home before and after the offense,” the legal counsel said. by Jamie Mill. argued the team.
Howe denied any involvement in the murders and provided two alibis to confirm his whereabouts during the hours before and after his visit to the Mills. There was nothing linking Howe to the scene, including DNA. But neither was Mills’ DNA.
Other “unidentified” DNA, which did not match Howe or Mills, was found on items recovered from Mills’ car. But the Combined DNA Index System, also known as CODIS, failed to achieve any matches.
However, the Hills’ DNA was found on several items recovered from the Mills’ car, according to court documents.
“While this DNA evidence did not irrefutably identify Mills or Howe as the killer, the fact that the DNA did not make an … impact on Howe was not helpful to Mills’ defense,” according to court documents filed by Steve Marshall, Alabama prosecutor. General.
Despite the lack of incriminating DNA evidence against Jamie Mills, the state says all other evidence presented over the course of the case was “overwhelming.”
Contributing: Amanda Lee Myers and Marty Roney
Keynote USA
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