At 6:24 p.m. Thursday, the state of Alabama executed Jerry Paul Henderson, 58, formerly of Calhoun, Ga., by means of lethal injection at Holman Prison in Atmore for a crime committed more than two decades ago.According to the Associated Press, Henderson’s last words reflected that he was "very sorry for the pain I’ve caused."
Henderson was convicted and sentenced to death for the New Year’s Day 1984 murder of his sister-in-law’s husband, Jerry Haney. Haney’s wife, Judy Haney, paid Henderson $3,000 for the murder. Judy Haney was also convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, but her sentence was later reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Former Talladega County District Attorney Robert Rumsey prosecuted Henderson, and characterized Haney’s murder as "almost perfect."
The Hendersons threw a party that New Year’s Eve at their home in Georgia. Excusing himself from his guests, Henderson said he was not feeling well and went to lie down in a back bedroom. He then climbed out his bedroom window and drove to Haney’s residence in Talladega.
According to court documents, Henderson "lured Haney to his front porch and shot (him) with a shotgun."
After knocking on the door, Henderson told Haney he was bringing his wife and children back from Georgia, but they had run out of gas. When Haney came out of the house, Henderson opened fire. The first shot struck Haney in the chest, but was not fatal. A second shot merely grazed his ear.
According to court documents, Haney made it to the back porch before collapsing and begging for his life.
"Henderson responded to this plea for mercy by putting the shotgun a few inches from Haney’s face and firing a third time. This shot blew Haney’s lips and teeth off and went into his skull, ending (his life)," according to documents submitted by the state Attorney General’s Office requesting an execution date.
After taking $80 from Haney, Henderson returned home, climbed back into his home through his bedroom window, and rejoined his party guests.
It would be more than three years before Haney’s murder was solved and Henderson was arrested.
In spite of the long investigation and the alibi created by the party guests, Rumsey said investigators had strong suspicions from the beginning. "After the killing, Henderson stopped at a restaurant in Oxford and called his wife and Judy Haney back in Georgia to let them know he had carried out the plan. He put money in the pay phone, but when the 3 minutes ran out, he didn’t have any more change. So they got the number of the pay phone and called him back."
The call showed up in the couple’s phone records. "So we knew that someone had made a long distance call to a pay phone within just a few minutes after the killing," Rumsey said. "Then, later on, we told Henderson we were coming to examine his shotgun to see if we could match it to the shooting. Of course, you can’t really do that with a shotgun, but apparently he didn’t know that."
Shortly before investigators arrived in Georgia, Henderson said his shotgun had been stolen from his truck. "But the glass on the truck window was broken out, not in," Rumsey said. "That confirmed our suspicions."
The shotgun was later tossed into a river, and has never been recovered.
Eventually, Henderson’s wife, Martha, confessed to her role in the plot, and agreed to wear a wire, which led to her husband’s arrest. According to court papers, Henderson confessed shortly after his arrest.
Jerry Haney’s brother, Billy Haney, is a lieutenant in the Talladega Police Department. He had just ended his shift on the night his brother was murdered, and was the first officer on the scene. Judy Haney had called him at home and said she was concerned because she could not reach her husband by phone.
Billy Haney attended Henderson’s execution, and was not available for comment Thursday night. When Henderson’s execution date was set in May, however, Billy Haney told The Daily Home "it took the justice system an awfully long time to come around, but that’s how it works. I still have every faith and confidence that the system works, but sometimes I wish it could be speeded up a little. I’ve lost both my parents and my sister since Jerry was killed. And (Henderson) got to live on this earth 21 years longer than my brother did. So there’s still some bitterness there."
Billy Haney and one of his surviving brothers attended the execution. "It’s not a revenge venture, it’s just for peace of mind, for closure. I’m there to represent my family, especially my sister and my parents. It’s a ritual to bring us all some peace."
One of the victim’s nephews also witnessed the execution, according to the Associated Press.
Henderson stood trial in 1989, and was convicted of two counts of capital murder, being a murder for hire and murder during the course of a robbery. The jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty over life in prison without possibility of parole. Then the appeals began.
The verdict and sentence were upheld in the state appellate courts. Henderson then filed a motion for collateral review in what is known as a Rule 32 hearing before the trial judge, in this case Jerry Fielding.
As the date for the hearing approached, Henderson found himself without an attorney. Fielding appointed Steve Giddens to represent him.
Giddens is currently district attorney for Talladega County, but was in private practice at the time.
After consulting with Giddens and being advised of rights by Fielding, Henderson signed a document waiving his right to the hearing.
This incident was the basis of most of Henderson’s later appeals.
Justin Ravitz, a former judge from Michigan, represented Henderson during the last several years of federal appeals. Ravitz argued that Giddens’ brother, Rod Giddens, was a prosecutor when Henderson was tried, and that the Giddens brothers were sharing office space when Steve Giddens was appointed for the Rule 32 hearing.
"For Fielding to appoint Steve Giddens when Rod Giddens prosecuted the case is absurd, and Steve Giddens’ testimony in federal court that he didn’t know anything about the case is truly absurd, especially since he admitted being friends with Billy Haney. Henderson didn’t even know why he was back in Talladega."
While Rod Giddens was an assistant district attorney while Henderson stood trial, Rumsey said the prosecutors actively involved in the case were himself and Julian King, currently Talladega County’s presiding circuit judge.
"It’s also risible that Giddens would ask Henderson if he thought he had a fair trial. Giddens is the lawyer. Henderson has a seventh-grade education, you couldn’t expect him to understand complex Sixth Amendment issues. I find it shameful that the state of Alabama, the 11th Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court would all find that was a valid waiver. The Rule 32 hearing would have been a venue to argue mitigating circumstances that didn’t come out at trial, and that was trampled by lust for vengeance."
Ravitz argued further that it was "shameful" for Henderson to be put to death with the minimum possible jury vote when "those jurors truly heard precious little about the man they were sending to the gallows. None of them could have written a full page on the history of this person. His trial counsel offered no mitigating circumstances for the jury to consider when they were deciding whether or not to execute a human being with no prior record of violence and a minimal criminal history."
Among other mitigating circumstances, Ravitz said Henderson was abandoned by his mother as an infant and sent to live with his grandmother, who died when he was 10 years old.
"They didn’t know how he was brutalized by his aunt in Florida after that, or how he talked to his mother for the first time when he was 16 years old. They didn’t know his mother committed suicide after that, and that the only time he ever saw her, she was in a box. They didn’t know that Henderson shot himself in the chest at 25, and that he has a long, prominent scar," Ravitz said. "They were made aware of none of this in any significant way. They saw a vicious murder for hire, but that’s not really what this was. It was a brutal, unlawful murder, and he deserves to be punished. He knows that, and he is remorseful."
Rumsey said he was satisfied that justice was being done. "It is certainly sad, but this was gruesome, almost perfectly planned murder. It was solved thanks to excellent police work, and progressed through the state and federal systems just as it should. There is no issue as to his guilt."
Steve Giddens could not comment, since he had previously represented Henderson, but Assistant District Attorney Barry Matson said, "My heart goes out to the Haney family. Victims and their families live with the results of violent crimes their whole lives, and the Haneys will continue to live with what Henderson did. It’s not closure, I think that’s an overused word that should be retired. But I hope they do receive at least some sense of justice."
