By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
The Alabama Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision announced last week, has cleared the way for the execution of death row inmate Gregory Hunt, nearly 35 years after he was convicted of the 1988 beating death of a Walker County woman.
All nine justices signed off on a ruling that authorized the execution to begin no less than 30 days from the date the order was issued. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey will set the execution date.
Hunt was convicted in 1990 by a Walker County jury on three counts of capital murder in the beating death of Karen Lane, a woman Hunt had been dating for about a month, inside the Cordova apartment she shared with another woman. Court documents show jurors voted 11-1 in favor of the death penalty.
The first count dealt with killing Lane during the course of a robbery. The other two related to allegations that he sexually abused her, a claim Hunt has repeatedly denied, although evidence presented during his trial showed that he did.
Lane was murdered in a Cordova apartment she shared with another young woman, according to court records, which show she suffered a total of 60 injuries when Hunt attacked her with his hands, his fists, a broom stick, and a bar stool.
Fingerprints and witness testimony linked Hunt to the scene, according to court records.
Hunt has reportedly chosen nitrogen hypoxia as his form of death, which will make him the fourth condemned Alabama inmate to die that way.