‘You killed my brother’: Sister confronts Gov. Ivey about execution of Nathaniel Woods

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The sister of a man executed in Alabama on March 5 confronted Gov. Kay Ivey at a census kick-off event Thursday.

While Ivey took questions from reporters, a woman approached her and said she was the sister of Nathaniel Woods.

“You killed my brother,” she said. “Gov. Ivey, you killed my brother.”

Ivey was led away, and the woman, identified as Pamela Woods, pursued her.

“He’s an innocent man and you killed him,” she called after Ivey, with other protesters calling out as well.

Nathaniel Woods was executed on March 5 after being convicted of capital murder for his role in the 2004 killings of three Birmingham police officers. His co-defendant, Kerry Spencer, has said Woods did not fire the gun that claimed the officers’ lives, but the state says Woods helped orchestrate the murders.

Several people, including the son of Martin Luther King Jr., asked for the governor to stop the execution. According to her office, after looking at the evidence in the case, Ivey decided not to stop it.

Speaking to reporters, Pamela Woods said the state executed her brother out of revenge.

“He had bad legal counsel,” she said. “That’s the only thing that went wrong in his case.”

Woods said she wants Ivey to abolish the death penalty. She also said any cases involving police officers should be investigated by the FBI, not the police department for which they worked.

“These were dirty cops, everyone in Ensley knows this, everyone knows this,” she said. “So why? Why execute an innocent man?”

She said Ivey and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who sent a statement condemning Nathaniel Woods prior to his execution, are murderers and that “they need to be executed.”

Several protests have been held outside the governor’s mansion since Woods was executed.

We have reached out to the governor’s office for a response.

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