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Robert Melson executed for 1994 killings of 3 fast-food workers

Brian Lyman
Montgomery Advertiser

The state of Alabama on Thursday executed Robert Melson for a triple homicide committed in 1994. 

Robert Melson was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of three people during a robbery of a Popeye's restaurant in Gadsden in 1994.

Melson, 46, had no final words before the execution began shortly before 10 p.m. His hands shook before about seven minutes of slightly labored breathing. Both ceased at 10:07 p.m. The Alabama Department of Corrections pronounced Melson dead at 10:27 p.m.

The execution was the second in Alabama this year, and the second in two weeks. The process took about 25 minutes.

Melson was convicted in 1996 and sentenced to death for the murders of three workers at a Gadsden restaurant on April 16, 1994. According to court records, three employees – James Nathaniel Baker, 17; Tamika Collins, 18 and Darryl Collier, 23 were ordered into a freezer by two men during a robbery, then shot and killed.

A fourth employee, Bryant Archer, was shot four times but managed to get of the freezer and call 911. Archer identified one of the robbers, Cuhuatemoc Peraita, 17, by his hairstyle. An hour later, police pulled over a car with Peraita in it, driven by Melson.

"For 23 years, the families of the three young people whose lives he took, as well as a survivor, have waited for closure and healing," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.  "That process can finally begin tonight."

Peraita was sentenced to life in prison in 1995 for his role in the robbery. He was later convicted and sentenced to death for participating in the murder of inmate Quincy Lewis at Holman in 1999.

Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton said Thursday afternoon Melson spent Wednesday and Thursday visiting with his attorneys as well as his uncle, brother, cousin and aunt. He refused breakfast Thursday morning and did not request a final meal. No family members of Melson's were present for the execution.

Collins' mother and two sisters witnessed the execution. In a statement, the family said questioned whether Melson "wondered what those three people felt" after the murders. The statement said that if Melson felt pain, "the suffering he encounters will remind him of what those three people went through for a few hundred dollars they did not get a chance to enjoy."

Family members of Tamika Collins, killed in a 1994 robbery of a Gadsden Popeye's restaurant, were present for the execution of Robert Melson, convicted of the murders

Melson’s direct appeals ended in 2001. But he later challenged the adequacy of his representation in a post-conviction process, known as Rule 32. Alabama appoints attorneys for indigent inmates in their direct appeals process, but not in the Rule 32 one, and Melson’s out-of-state attorneys missed critical filing deadlines, and the inmate challenged the adequacy of his counsel in court. But federal courts rejected the challenge, and the U.S. Supreme Court finally turned it down in 2014.

The inmate joined other death row inmates in challenging the state’s execution protocol, in particular its use of midazolam. The drug is used as a sedative, with the goal of rendering an inmate unconscious before rocuronium bromide, which paralyzes the muscles, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart, are injected.

Medical professionals say midazolam cannot sustain unconsciousness, and the drug has been present for botched executions. The executions of Christopher Brooks in Jan. 2016 and Tommy Arthur last month took place without apparent incident, though attorneys have since raised questions about Brooks' execution. But Ronald Bert Smith, executed in December, gasped and coughed for 13 minutes of his 34 minute execution. His attorneys said it showed he was not anesthesized; the Department of Corrections said at the time there was “no observational evidence” that Smith suffered.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals last week stayed Melson's execution to allow time to consider the appeals. The Alabama attorney general's office appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the stay was improper. The nation's high court lifted the stay Tuesday night without comment. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg; Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the decision.

Attempts by Melson's attorneys to put the stay back in place Wednesday and Thursday were unsuccessful. The Alabama Supreme Court rejected a motion to vacate Melson's execution date, and federal courts denied his attorneys' request for a second stay. 

The U.S. Supreme Court briefly stayed the execution Thursday night to consider a final appeal, but ultimately lifted it. There were no dissents.

The state does not currently have any future executions scheduled.

The status of Alabama's execution drug supply is unknown. Alabama switched to a protocol using midazolam in 2014; the drug has a three-year self life. 

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner said the department was "prepared" to carry out any future executions that might take place, though he declined specific comment on the protocol or the status of the state's supply of midazolam.

"I have other members of my staff that keep up with that," he said. "They inform me we are prepared to carry out any executions the court tells us to."