A man who shot three people dead while robbing a fast food joint 23 years ago is scheduled to be executed Thursday night.
Robert Bryant Melson, 46, is set to undergo execution by lethal injection at a southern Alabama prison Thursday evening, the Daily Mail reported.
State prosecutors say Melson and an accomplice robbed a Popeyes restaurant in Gadsden when Melson shot four employees on April 15, 1994.
Nathaniel Baker, Tamika Collins, and Darrell Collier all died as a result of the shooting.
Bryant Archer, who survived the attack, crawled to seek help and identified Melson’s accomplice as a former employee of the restaurant.
Melson told police he was with the former employee that night, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors say a footprint behind the restaurant matched Melson’s shoes.
Archer told AL.com that Melson and his accomplice made off with $2,100 after killing his co-workers and shooting him five times.
Melson’s attorneys tried unsuccessfully to halt his execution over questioning whether Alabama’s protocol for lethal injection was constitutional.
A judge dismissed lawsuits that say Alabama is using a sedative called midazolam that has been known to cause problems during executions, such as causing inmates to convulse or cough when they are supposed to be sedated.
Melson and other inmates are trying to appeal the judge’s dismissal.
Melson’s attorney argued that the drug does not cause an anesthetic effect on the inmate, but rather a paralytic effect that causes the inmate to remain still but still feel pain.
“Alabama’s execution protocol is an illusion. It creates the illusion of a peaceful death when in truth, it is anything but,” Melson’s attorneys wrote in a filing to the Alabama Supreme Court.
The Alabama attorney general’s office has argued that the Supreme Court upheld midazolam’s use in executions and was therefore legal to use.
“If a stay were granted, Melson’s execution would be delayed many months, if not years. The State, the victims’ families, and the surviving victim in this case have waited long enough for justice to be delivered,” the attorney general’s office wrote in a court filing with the 11th Circuit Wednesday.
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