Trussville Woman's Killer To Be Executed Thursday

TRUSSVILLE, AL — A federal judge declined to block an execution of a man convicted of kidnapping and killing a Trussville woman in 1991, numerous outlets report.

Willie B. Smith III is likely to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore for the kidnapping and murder of Sharma Ruth Johnson, then 22. Only one

U.S. Chief District Judge Emily Marks denied Smith’s lawyers’ requests for a preliminary injunction, a decision the lawyers are appealing. Smith’s lawyers argued that since he has an IQ of 70, he should have been given help to understand the paperwork related to his selection of an execution method, according to the Associated Press. Smith did not turn in a form selecting nitrogen hypoxia, a new execution method authorized in Alabama.

The execution will move forward pending an appeal by the court or a stay from the governor’s office, according to the Trussville Tribune. If it does, it will occur nearly 30 years after Smith’s original sentencing to the electric chair in 1992. The case has gone through several appeals, including before the U.S. Supreme Court in February.

On Oct. 26, 1991, Johnson was abducted from an ATM off Parkway East by Smith, then 22, and a 17-year-old female accomplice Angelica Willis, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. Trial testimony has shown that Johnson had no relationship with either of her assailants. After Willis approached Johnson to ask for directions, Smith approached with a shotgun and demanded Johnson get in the trunk. They drove to a nearby ATM, where they withdrew the remaining $80 from her account.

According to the Trussville Tribune, they then drove her to Zion Memorial Cemetery, where Smith shot Johnson in the head. Smith, Willis, and Smith’s brother then drove Johnson’s car to a Roebuck cemetery, with Johnson’s dead body in the trunk. They then torched the car, Willis later testified. Willis served just 25 years in exchange for testimony.

A classmate told the Tribune that Johnson was “one of the sweetest people you would ever meet.” She is now buried in Jefferson Memorial Gardens in Trussville.

Read the full Trussville Tribune report here.