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Alabama executes inmate in 1984 murder for hire plot

ATMORE, Ala. - With a plea for forgiveness, a Georgia man was executed Thursday for the 1984 shooting death of a Talladega man whose wife paid $3,000 for the killing.

Jerry Paul Henderson, 58, of Calhoun, Ga., whose own wife turned him in, was put to death at 6:24 p.m. by lethal injection at Holman prison for the shotgun slaying of textile worker Jerry Haney, 33, at his Talladega home.

Before the execution, prison chaplain Chris Summers knelt beside Henderson and held his left hand as the two prayed.

Henderson said he was "very sorry for the pain I've caused" to the victim's family.

"I pray the family of Jerry Haney can find it in their heart one day to forgive. I pray they find peace and love in the Lord Jesus Christ as I have, because that's the true peace. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ that I'm fixing to see him face to face," Henderson said.

He did not look toward Haney's family members, including two brothers and a nephew, in the witness room. But Henderson winked and gave a thumbs up sign to his two spiritual advisers seated in a separate witness room.

Henderson was convicted of luring Haney onto the front porch of the victim's home and shooting him three times, the last shot fired point-blank into his face. Haney's wife, the sister of Henderson's wife, had told them that Haney abused her and promised to pay all she could - $3,000, as it turned out - if they would end the abuse, according to court records.

Three years after the New Year's Day killing, Henderson's wife, Martha, went to authorities. Henderson, a maintenance mechanic with a seventh-grade education, confessed and was sentenced to death. Judy Haney was initially sentenced to death, but her sentence was reduced to life without parole.

Martha Henderson was not charged.

Jerry Henderson, who did not ask Gov. Bob Riley for clemency, met with religious counselors Thursday, said Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett.

The execution was the second in Alabama this year.

High court rejects convicted killer's appeal gs,4

HARRISBURG, Pa. - The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a woman serving a life sentence for stabbing a teenage rival to death in 1991.

The court declined to hear the case of Lisa Michelle Lambert, 32, who has waged a lengthy battle to overturn her 1991 murder conviction in the death of Laurie Show, a 16-year-old high school sophomore.

Lambert stalked and killed Show, thinking she was romantically involved with Lambert's boyfriend, Lawrence Yunkin. The murder inspired a 2000 USA Network TV movie, The Stalking of Laurie Show.

In 1997, a federal district judge temporarily freed Lambert, ruling prosecutorial misconduct had occurred. But a federal appeals court reversed that ruling, first finding that the district judge had lacked jurisdiction and later holding that Lambert's trial had been fair.

[Last modified June 3, 2005, 01:17:39]