Walter Hill was convicted of murder three times, in three separate cases spread over a quarter of a century. The first was a second-degree murder conviction in an Alabama state court in 1952. The second came in the 1960s, while he was serving a federal sentence in the penitentiary in Atlanta, where he was convicted of killing another inmate. The third followed his release on parole in 1975: in January 1977 three people died in Bessemer, Alabama, and Hill was convicted of capital murder. He was sentenced to death twice, and Alabama executed him on May 2, 1997, at the age of 62.
His case is also a study in how long a capital conviction could take to settle. The first trial ended in a conviction that an appeals court reversed. The retrial produced another conviction and another death sentence, which was itself reversed once and later reinstated. The last appeal was decided less than a week before the execution.
Hill's date and place of birth, his family and his schooling are not on record. His life is documented from the first conviction in 1952, when he was an adult. He was 62 at the time of his execution in 1997.
In 1952 Hill was convicted of second-degree murder in an Alabama state court and sentenced to ten years in prison. The county, the victim and the circumstances are not on record, and it is not on record whether the conviction followed a trial or a plea.
He was released in 1960. The time he spent in custody before his release is not on record.
A year after his release, in 1961, Hill was convicted in a federal court in Alabama of kidnapping and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle. He received a 25-year sentence. The year of this conviction is also given as 1962.
While he was serving that sentence in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Hill was convicted of killing another inmate. The Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama dated that murder conviction to 1967 and described it as a murder committed while he was in custody. The federal court gave him five more years. The name of the inmate, the charge as worded in the indictment and the court that tried the case are not on record.
Hill was paroled in 1975, after serving about 13 years of his federal sentences.
Two years after his parole, on January 7, 1977, three people died in Bessemer, a city in Jefferson County, west of Birmingham: Willie Mae Hammock, aged 60; her stepbrother, John Tatum Jr., aged 36; and his wife, Lois Jean Tatum, aged 34. The Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama gave the names as Lois Gene Tatum, Willie Mae Hammock and John Tatum, Jr.
Hill was arrested in North Carolina two days later. His movements between the killings and the arrest are not on record.
The State of Alabama charged Hill with capital murder. In October 1977 a circuit court jury convicted him and Judge Harry Pickens sentenced him to death. In 1979 the Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama reversed the conviction in Hill v. State, because prospective jurors who objected to the death penalty had been excluded improperly. That was the rule of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Witherspoon v. Illinois.
Hill was tried again before Judge Pickens beginning on August 21, 1979. The jury found him guilty of first-degree murder with aggravating circumstances and fixed the penalty at death. Judge Pickens announced the death sentence from the bench on September 14, 1979, but he died before he signed the sentencing order.
Judge Gardner F. Goodwyn Jr. took over the case and held a new hearing on the sentence. In February 1980 he sentenced Hill to death. The date of the sentence is given as February 19, 1980 and also as February 22, 1980.
Judge Goodwyn found three aggravating circumstances and no mitigating circumstances. The first concerned the nature of the three killings. The second was that Hill had knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons. The third was that Hill had been convicted of earlier violent felonies. The Court of Criminal Appeals listed them as the 1952 second-degree murder conviction, a kidnapping conviction in 1962 and the 1967 murder conviction for a killing committed while he was in custody.
In 1981 the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the second conviction under the United States Supreme Court's decision in Beck v. Alabama, which concerned the rule that barred juries in capital cases from considering lesser offenses. The Supreme Court of Alabama denied review. In 1982 the United States Supreme Court vacated that ruling and sent the case back for reconsideration in light of its decision in Hopper v. Evans.
On January 31, 1984, on rehearing, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama withdrew its earlier opinion, addressed every issue Hill had raised and affirmed the conviction and the death sentence in Hill v. State. It held that the former preclusion clause in the capital statute had not prejudiced Hill, that the trial court had properly dismissed three of four counts after jury selection, that testimony given earlier by a witness who had since died was admissible, and that Judge Goodwyn could impose the sentence after Judge Pickens's death. It found two errors harmless: an improper question about Hill's silence after arrest, which the judge cured with an instruction to the jury, and a misstatement in the jury charge.
The indictment charged that Hill "unlawfully and with malice aforethought" killed Lois Gene Tatum, Willie Mae Hammock and John Tatum Jr. in a single count. The court held that charging the three deaths in a single count supplied the element that the killings were intentional and committed by one or a series of acts.
The Supreme Court of Alabama affirmed on July 6, 1984, in Ex parte Hill, with Chief Justice Torbert not sitting. Rehearing was denied on August 24, 1984. The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari later in 1984.
In December 1985 Hill filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis in the state circuit court, raising a single claim that the prosecution had withheld evidence favorable to the defense. Circuit Judge James Garrett denied it after a hearing in 1987. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed in 1988 and the Supreme Court of Alabama denied review in 1989. In 1989 the United States Supreme Court also denied review on a claim that one of the aggravating circumstances was unconstitutionally vague.
In March 1990 Hill filed a petition under the state's Rule 20 raising twelve claims, including ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel. Judge Garrett dismissed all but the claim about withheld evidence under the state's rule on successive petitions and denied that claim on the merits.
Hill filed a federal habeas corpus petition in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on April 12, 1990. As amended it raised seventeen grounds. On April 13, 1994, Judge Edwin L. Nelson denied it without a hearing, finding twelve claims procedurally defaulted and the rest without merit. Later filings by new counsel were struck or denied as untimely.
On April 9, 1996, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed, in an opinion by Judge Black joined by Chief Judge Hatchett and Judge Cox, in Hill v. Jones. Hill had narrowed his appeal to six claims, and the court addressed four of them: ineffective assistance of trial counsel, ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, a claim under Beck v. Alabama and a claim under Swain v. Alabama. It held the others procedurally defaulted. The Eleventh Circuit denied rehearing en banc on July 15, 1996.
On March 31, 1997, with the execution date set for May 2, Hill filed a civil rights complaint in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama challenging Alabama's execution procedures. The district court dismissed it on April 10 as an improper second habeas petition. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed on April 17 in Hill v. Hopper, holding that a prisoner cannot avoid the limits on successive habeas petitions by filing under the civil rights statute, and that Hill had needed the appeals court's permission before filing again. On April 25 the court denied his motion for an injunction against the execution while he sought review in the Supreme Court.
Hill also pursued a state post-conviction petition under Rule 32. The Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama decided that appeal on April 22, 1997, in Hill v. State, with rehearing denied the next day. The Supreme Court of Alabama denied certiorari on May 1, 1997.
Walter Hill was executed in Alabama on Friday, May 2, 1997, at the age of 62. The prison, his last statement and the reaction of the victims' relatives are not on record.
No killings other than the three convictions have been charged, confessed or attributed to Hill. The 1952 conviction was for second-degree murder; whether it followed a plea is not on record. The federal kidnapping conviction is dated 1961 and also 1962, and the 1980 sentence February 19 and also February 22.
1952: Convicted of second-degree murder in an Alabama state court; ten years.
1960: Released from custody.
1961 (also given as 1962): Convicted in federal court in Alabama of kidnapping and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle; 25 years.
1967: Convicted of murder of another inmate in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta; five further years.
1975: Paroled.
January 7, 1977: Willie Mae Hammock, John Tatum Jr. and Lois Jean Tatum die in Bessemer, Alabama.
January 1977: Hill arrested in North Carolina two days later.
October 1977: Convicted of capital murder; sentenced to death.
1979: Conviction reversed by the Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.
August 21, 1979: Retrial begins; guilty verdict and death penalty; sentence announced September 14, 1979.
February 1980: Death sentence imposed by Judge Goodwyn after the sentencing judge's death.
1981: Second conviction reversed under Beck v. Alabama.
1982: United States Supreme Court vacates and remands in light of Hopper v. Evans.
January 31, 1984: Court of Criminal Appeals affirms on rehearing.
July 6, 1984: Supreme Court of Alabama affirms; rehearing denied August 24, 1984.
1985 to 1990: State post-conviction petitions.
April 12, 1990: Federal habeas petition filed; denied April 13, 1994.
April 9, 1996: Eleventh Circuit affirms the denial.
March 31, 1997: Civil rights complaint filed; dismissed April 10; affirmed April 17.
April 22 to May 1, 1997: State Rule 32 appeal decided and review denied.
May 2, 1997: Executed.