ATMORE, Ala. (AP) – The daughter of an Alabama inmate who was put to death Thursday says there should be mandatory DNA testing on crime scene evidence in capital cases before executions are carried out.
Sherrie Stone made the statement at a news conference early Friday about an hour after her father, Tommy Arthur, received a lethal injection at a state prison in southwest Alabama.
Arthur was convicted in the fatal shooting of another man, Troy Wicker, in a 1982 murder-for-hire scheme.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey had refused a request from Arthur to do DNA testing on crime scene hair samples.
Stone said she vacillated through the years on whether she thought her father was guilty or innocent. Stone said Friday, “Now I will never know the truth.”
Ivey’s lawyer said jurors knew the hairs, because of their type, did not come from Arthur but convicted him anyway.
Stone also offered her sympathies to Wicker’s family.