Posted on 08/04/2005 9:57:05 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Posted on Wed, Aug. 03, 2005
Anti-government extremist asks court to stay execution in Alabama
Associated Press
ATMORE, Ala. - An anti-government extremist convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of an Opelika police officer has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block his execution, which is set for Thursday.
George Sibley Jr., 62, who previously has contended the courts don't have any jurisdiction over him, filed the petition Wednesday. His personally written filing says his appeal has never been fully reviewed by the court in Washington, D.C., and it is "crucial in a case such as this."
The state submitted a rebuttal filing Thursday that said Sibley is not entitled to a delay, said Clay Crenshaw, an assistant attorney general.
According to the state's filing, the issue Sibley "attempts to raise in his rehearing petition is meritless and unworthy of review."
"For no good reason, Sibley has waited until the eve of his execution to file this motion," the rebuttal filing states.
Sibley is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Holman prison near Atmore for the killing of Officer Roger Motley in a Wal-Mart parking lot in 1993. Sibley's common-law wife, Lynda Lyon Block, 54, was executed in 2002 for her role in the shooting death of Motley.
She was executed after she and Sibley for years had refused to file appeals. They renounced their U.S. citizenship and contended the courts were biased and without jurisdiction.
Sibley did pursue an appeal, for a time, months after her execution, and recently the Alabama Supreme Court denied his handwritten plea for the execution to be blocked. He argued that his conviction and sentence were "unconstitutional contrivances."
Motley was shot to death as he approached the couple's car after a passer-by said a child in the car had asked for help. Block's 9-year-old son was in the car. Sibley and Block claimed the officer was going for his gun and they shot him in self-defense. Witnesses said Sibley fired first and Block then fired repeatedly at the wounded officer.
The two were fleeing from Orlando, Fla., to avoid being sentenced on assault convictions in the stabbing of Block's 79-year-old former husband during an argument.
Sibley's personal appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was delivered for him by the Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery.
"The court has made clear that the constitutionality of the death penalty rests in part on the opportunity for its rational review of the process by which it is imposed and full review in this case requires that his execution be stayed," the petition says.
"...convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of an Opelika police officer ..."
Fry him.
So he recognizes the courts NOW? But not before his wife's execution???
Cop killing scum...
My wife and I met George, Lynda and her son a few times, just before they went on the lam. They were possibly the 2 most paranoid folks that we ever encountered. Everytime I see an article about them I think about her son, who was a quiet and intelligent young man, and totally undeserving of all of this insanity.
This is a sad tale all around.
I don't know about executions in Alabama! They only have a cash bar, the music is much too loud and there's never enough parking. But, OTOH, they are always a good time! See ya there!
Be sure to take your jumper cables.
well????
it's friday morning and did they excute him on schedule or is the P.O.S. still breathing?
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