MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal appeals court is considering a challenge by an Alabama inmate trying to avoid being put to death this month for a judge’s mail-bomb killing nearly 30 years ago.
Records show the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has a petition filed by Walter Leroy Moody Jr. He’s scheduled for lethal injection on April 19 for the bombing death of U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Vance in 1989.
A lower court judge in Mobile previously refused a challenge by Moody. U.S. District Judge Callie Granade rejected Moody’s claim that he’s being improperly held by the state when he should be in federal custody.
The judge died when he opened a mailed package at home.
Moody is the oldest inmate on Alabama’s death row at 83.