‘I don’t have no pity party’: Alabama execution set for Tuesday evening

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Gregory Hunt says he’s not “your typical death row inmate.”

“I don’t have no pity party,” he said in a recent phone interview. “You know, I’m just battling until I get a break or they snuff my light out.”

Barring legal intervention, Hunt, who is in his 60s, is set to die by nitrogen gas Tuesday in Alabama for the 1988 murder of Karen Lane. 

As the execution approaches, Hunt said he isn’t afraid to die because of his deep spirituality. His comments also called attention to limited resources for people on death row to raise legal challenges, where “the state has the advantage,” he said. 

Death penalty litigation is known as a specialized and high-stakes area of the law. But in recent weeks, Hunt has made legal filings in at least two courts “pro se,” a legal term meaning he is representing himself in court. 

Hunt said he could not find a lawyer to represent him, and that federal defense attorneys aren’t able to help him with filings in some courts. Attorneys from the federal defender’s office declined to comment. 

Richard Jaffe, a criminal defense attorney who has worked on capital cases, said it’s not uncommon for people in prison to make pro se legal filings. Alabama contributes little to funding lawyers for post-conviction legal representation, taking the position “that if a jury convicted someone, then that’s good enough,” he explained.

“Obviously not having lawyers to make legal challenges is a disadvantage, significantly,” Jaffe said. 

The attorney general’s office disputes that Hunt is working without a lawyer, saying he “continues to receive assistance from counsel,” a spokesman for the office said in a statement. 

“Portions of Hunt’s filings are clearly the product of an attorney,” it reads. “Moreover, the documents themselves must have been produced by counsel, as death-row inmates do not have access to the sort of word processing software necessary to produce these well-formatted documents.”

Court filings from Hunt contend that recent Supreme Court decisions could trigger a review of his case. They also raise questions about evidence, including a broomstick found with Lane’s body that prosecutors suggested had been used to sexually assault her.

That stick had human cells on it, a serologist said at Hunt’s trial. Hunt is arguing that prosecutors suggested it could be cervical mucus from an assault. But he learned that Lane had no cervix, because she had a hysterectomy. 

The issue is being contested because sexual assault allegations helped make Hunt eligible for a death sentence under Alabama law.

In responses filed in court, lawyers for the attorney general’s office said Hunt’s claims were  “meritless” and some had been raised before. They wrote that a witness testified the mucus could have come from another orifice, and that other evidence pointed to a sexual assault of Lane.

Hunt is the fifth person in Alabama set to be put to death by the controversial nitrogen gas method, which has drawn criticism from some physicians and human-rights experts. Alabama was the first in the nation to use the method, and is one of just two states to have deployed it.

Hunt selected the method, but said he isn’t on board with the current nitrogen gas execution protocol, likening it to “smothering you with a pillow.” He would prefer an approach that caused a slow loss of consciousness. 

He previously joined in on legal challenges to the state’s lethal injection practices, records show.

“It seems like no matter what method they come up with, it has to involve some kind of cruelty,” he said. 

‘Should have never happened’

Hunt was convicted of three counts of capital murder in 1990 at a jury trial. Court filings show he and Lane, the victim, had been dating for about a month.

Lane, 32, was born in Jasper, Alabama, according to the records. She was killed in Hunt’s cousin’s apartment. A pathologist said she had broken ribs, a broken nose, a broken cheekbone and other injuries. 

A bloody palm print and testimony from a jailhouse informant were among evidence prosecutors put forth in their case against Hunt. Jurors agreed that Hunt was guilty as charged but were divided during the penalty phase, with 11 of 12 jurors voting to impose a death sentence. 

Alabama and Florida are the only two states that allow a non-unanimous jury to choose a death sentence during the penalty phase of a trial, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Jurors first must agree unanimously to convict.

Lane’s sister, Denise Gurganus, has testified before the Alabama legislature about her sister’s death and taken part in crime victims advocacy events, according to reports. Reached for comment ahead of the execution, she declined to make a statement.

“The way she was killed is just devastating. It’s hard enough to lose a family member to death,” she told Birmingham TV station WBRC in 2014. 

The attorney general’s spokesman said their office is in touch with Lane’s family, and that they are hopeful that she “can finally receive justice.”

Hunt said “what happened should have never happened,” describing his abuse of drugs and alcohol at the time. 

“I lost it. You know, I can’t go back and fix that,” he said.

Limited access

At William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Hunt said he could only visit a computer a few hours a week to do legal research, and must purchase stamps to send out mail. He estimates he has a tenth-grade education.

His case appears marked by less-than-ideal access to lawyers from the beginning. According to a 2006 court filing, his initial lawyer was appointed just three months before his trial date; another accepted his appointment weeks before the trial. 

The team did little investigation, the filing contends. As a result, jurors never heard about how Hunt grew up in Florida to a “violent, alcoholic family” that was physically and sexually abusive. He periodically lived in group homes and began using drugs in childhood.

In capital cases, these are known as “mitigating factors” that are often presented during the penalty phase when a jury is deciding whether or not to impose a death sentence. 

Hunt said before he entered prison, he had serious psychological problems. Being there has been “like a hospital” for him,” especially as he began exploring his faith. 

“It was just me, God, Bible, and worship, and the Holy Spirit helped me get a right mind. That took years, to get rid of the insanity,” he said.

His favorite thing to do is write Gospel songs and sing them, though he claims to have a singing voice “like a weedeater.” 

The Rev. Jeff Hood, a death penalty opponent and Catholic priest who serves as Hunt’s spiritual advisor, said his client ministers to others on death row. 

“I think his is a story of spiritual triumph — the triumph of spirituality, the beauty of spirituality. And I think that he has been able to transcend that which confines him,” Hood said. 

He called Hunt “courageous.”

That includes his apparent calm about what is likely approaching. Hunt said he could have died regularly in his life before prison, when he was living without God, so he is not afraid to die now.

“I don’t know why people cry at funerals if they’re going to heaven,” he said.