Execution of Nathaniel Woods

On December 3, 2021, a documentary by The New York Times about the case of Nathaniel Woods titled To Live and Die in Alabama was released on Hulu and FX.

The execution of Nathaniel Woods occurred on March 5, 2020, at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama. The execution was controversial due to skepticism about his culpability and the fairness of his trial. Woods had surrendered inside a crack house during a police raid that attempted to serve a months-old arrest warrant on Woods. Another man came downstairs and opened fire, killing three officers. Woods ran from the scene after the gunfire erupted.

Hours before Woods's death, the United States Supreme Court temporarily halted the execution, but later denied a stay. Nathaniel Woods was executed at Holman Correctional Facility by lethal injection at 9:01 p.m on March 5, 2020. He did not make a final statement. Shaun King called the execution "a modern day lynching" and said that the state of Alabama "just executed an innocent man." On March 13, 2020, Nathaniel Woods's sister, Pamela Woods, confronted Governor Kay Ivey during one of Ivey's press briefings and said, "Governor Ivey, you killed my brother."

Bubba Cooper, an associate of Spencer and Woods and the cousin of Woods, later filed an affidavit in 2012 that said that two of the Birmingham police officers involved were crooked cops. According to Cooper, Kerry Spencer and him paid the officers around $1,000 a week in exchange for being allowed to deal and advance notice of buy-and-bust operations of narcotics officers. After Cooper was arrested on attempted murder charges after he was involved in a shoot-out, the deal fell apart after the officers allegedly raised the price. Later, advocates for Woods claim that this raises questions over whether the drug bust was entirely legitimate.

Kerry Spencer was tried slightly before Woods and was convicted of murder, with his trial finishing in September 2005. Spencer was sentenced to death, and remains on death row at Holman Correctional Facility awaiting execution as of 2022. Before Woods' trial, he turned down a plea deal of 20 to 25 years in prison. One of his lawyers misinformed him by saying that he could not be given the death penalty as he did not commit the murders. Lauren Faraino, a lawyer and later supporter of Woods criticized his original legal team as being weak and ineffective.

The murders that Nathaniel Woods was convicted of took place on June 17, 2004, in Birmingham, Alabama. Four police officers: Harley Chishom III, Charles Bennett, Carlos Owen and Michael Collins, stormed a crack house while Nathaniel Woods and Kerry Spencer were inside. Spencer had an SKS rifle when he heard the officers, while Woods was in the kitchen. After Woods had surrendered to the officers, Spencer came downstairs to see two officers pointing guns at him. Spencer fired shots at all four police officers, killing three out of the four (Chishom, Bennett and Owen). The fourth officer, Michael Collins, was injured but survived. Woods ran out of the house when he heard the gunshots. Spencer and Woods were both charged with the murders, despite Woods never firing a weapon.

Woods's execution made him the 67th death row prisoner to be executed in Alabama since 1978. Martin Luther King III criticized the execution, writing, "the actions of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Governor of the State of Alabama are reprehensible and have potentially contributed to an irreversible injustice". Further criticism came from Kim Kardashian, who had championed Woods's case, commenting after the stay of execution was lifted, "My heart and prayers are with Nate and his family."