Governor Kay Ivey has commuted the sentence of an Alabama inmate who has been on death row since 1994. On Friday, Ivey announced that Robin D. “Rocky” Myers, who is accused of the capital murder of Ludie Mae Tucker, will no longer face the death penalty.
Ivey offered justification for her decision in a letter addressed to Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm.
“Thus far as governor, I have presided over 22 executions, and I will never waver in my belief that the death penalty is just punishment for society’s most serious crimes,” Ivey wrote. “I also reject all attempts to manipulate the system by activist lawyers for death row inmates who make unfounded claims of contrived injustices.”
The Governor pointed to unresolved questions pertaining to Myers’s guilt as the chief reason for re-sentencing him to life without the possibility of parole.
“However, in the case of Ludie Mae Tucker’s murder, I have enough questions about Mr. Myers’ guilt that I cannot move forward with executing him. For example, no murder weapon was found, and no DNA evidence or fingerprints or other physical evidence tied Mr. Myers to the scene of the crime. Although Ms. Tucker knew Mr. Myers and let her attacker inside the house, neither she nor Marie Dutton – the only two eyewitnesses to the crime – ever identified Mr. Myers as the assailant. There is also other circumstantial evidence, but it is riddled with conflicting evidence from seemingly everyone involved,” Ivey said in a statement.
“In short, I am not convinced that Mr. Myers is innocent, but I am not so convinced of his guilt as to approve of his execution,” she continued. “I therefore must respect both the jury’s decision to convict him and its recommendation that he be sentenced to life without parole.”
Ivey called the choice to commute Myers’s death sentence “one of the most difficult” decisions she has made while governor.
“But it pales in comparison to the pain and suffering Ludie Mae Tucker and Marie Dutton endured on the night of October 4, 1991 – and to the many hardships the Tucker family has endured at the hands of our imperfect justice system. I pray that the Tucker family may, in some way, find closure and peace knowing this case is closed, and Mr. Myers will spend the rest of his life in prison.”
Shortly after Ivey’s announcement, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall released a statement expressing both surprise and frustration, noting that Ivey didn’t inform him directly of her intentions to change the sentence.
“I am astonished by Governor Ivey’s decision to commute the death sentence of Rocky Myers and am bewildered that she chose not to directly communicate with me about this case or her decision,” he said.
Marshall believes Ivey’s commutation goes against decades of court rulings.
“For the last 30 years, my Office has zealously defended this case on appeal, and for 30 years, no court has reached the conclusion that the Governor reached after a cursory review. Despite my Office’s thorough response to the Governor’s request for information yesterday afternoon, her decision was announced less than 24 hours later.”
“My capital litigation and victims’ services teams will go home tonight deeply saddened, not for themselves, but for the family of Ludie Mae Tucker,” said Marshall. “We will never stop fighting for justice.”
Austen Shipley is the News Director for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten
