Dominique Ray

ALABAMA (USA): DOMINIQUE RAY EXECUTED

February 8, 2019:

Dominique Ray, 42, Black, was executed on 7 February 2019.
He wasd sent to death row in 1999 after being convicted of the July 15, 1995 abduction, rape and murder of 15-year-old Tiffany Harville.
The search for Tiffany’s body lasted 2 years, until Marcus D. Owden in 1997 came forward and told police that he and Ray were involved in Tiffany’s killing. Owden testified during the trial and said Ray knew Tiffany, and Ray wanted to find the teen and have sex with her. He said on July 15, 1995, he and Ray picked up Tiffany. Owden testified the two men then raped Tiffany, slit her throat and took her clothes and purse.
Court records state Ray confessed his role in the rape and slaying, but named Owden as the primary aggressor.
Ray’s execution by lethal injection was set for 6 p.m. at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The U.S. Supreme Court lifted the stay about 8 p.m., and the execution began at 9:44 p.m. The curtains to the viewing room closed at 10:05 p.m, and the official time of death was 10:12 p.m. His execution comes 20 years after being put on death row, and while he was also serving time for the February 4, 1994 killings of two teenage boys (Reinhard and Earnest Mabins) because they refused to join a gang with Ray and Owden. For the boys’ killings, he was sentenced to life in prison. Alabama has executed Ray after the U.S. Supreme Court, voting 5-4, lifted a federal appeals court stay based on the inmate’s request to have his Muslim spiritual adviser at his side.
Ray’s last words were in Arabic.
Ray’s attorneys also asked for Ray to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, a newly approved method of execution in the state. There are more than 50 death row inmates who have chosen to die by the new method, but they made their elections by the June 2018 deadline implemented by the state. According to Watkins’ order, Ray claimed to have waited until January to make his election because in June, Ray’s religious beliefs hindered him from choosing the nitrogen hypoxia method. Ray becomes the 1st person executed this year in Alabama, the 64th since Alabama resumed executions in 1983, the 2nd this year in the Us, and the 1,492nd person executed in the United States since 1977.