Late Thursday night, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) called the granting of a stay of execution for death row inmate Christopher Lee Price “a miscarriage of justice.”
“This evening, the state of Alabama witnessed a miscarriage of justice,” Gov. Ivey said. “Just days before Christmas in 1991, Christopher Lee Price brutally took the life of Pastor Bill Lynn. This horrendous crime left Pastor Lynn’s wife and family to grieve, and now, almost 30 years later, the family is still left with no closure. ”
“To Pastor Lynn’s family, as well as the prosecutors and members of law enforcement who have worked on this case for years, I want to offer my assurance that I will continually fight to uphold the laws that bind our state,” Ivey continued. “Rightfully administering justice is a necessary duty as governor of Alabama.”
“Tonight, in the middle of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, the family of Pastor Bill Lynn was deprived of justice,” said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R). “They were, in effect, re-victimized by a killer trying to evade his just punishment. This 11th-hour stay for death row inmate Christopher Price will do nothing to serve the ends of justice. Indeed, it has inflicted the opposite— injustice, in the form of justice delayed.”
“On December 22, 1991, Bill Lynn was wrapping Christmas gifts for his grandchildren when he was ambushed outside his home, slashed and stabbed with a sword dozens of times,” Marshall explained. “His killer has dodged his death sentence for the better part of three decades by employing much the same strategy he has pursued tonight—desperately clinging to legal maneuverings to avoid facing the consequences of his heinous crime.”
“I can promise you this: Alabama will never forget victims. Justice will be had for Pastor Lynn and his family” Marshall vowed. “As for Christopher Price, his day of justice will come.”
Thursday evening, Judge Kristi Dubose, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, granted Price’s second petition for a stay, which was later upheld on appeal by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Time ran out before the State’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court could be considered.
