He Never Touched the Murder Weapon. Alabama Sentenced Him to Die.
The New York Times
Nathaniel Woods was unarmed when three Birmingham police officers were fatally shot by someone else in 2004. But Woods, a Black man, was convicted of capital murder for his role in the deaths of the three white officers.
BIRMINGHAM — He cradled his infant grandchild for the first and final time. He picked at some food. He posed for family photographs that captured smiles as strained as the conversation. Then someone in charge said it was time.
The center of attention, Nathaniel Woods, assured his heavy-hearted father that everything would be all right. Dad, I love you, he said. But when y’all walk out this gate today, I’m gonna walk out with y’all, but y’all aren’t going to know it.
It was late afternoon on March 5, 2020, the overcast day chosen by the State of Alabama to be Mr. Woods’s last. He had been convicted 15 years earlier in connection with the shooting deaths of three Birmingham police officers — and ever since had been rechristened Cop Killer Nathaniel Woods.
