Condemned killer Wallace Norrell Thomas was put to death in a Friday the 13th execution after the Supreme Court refused to stay his sentence over concerns about Alabama's problem-prone electric chair.
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Thomas, sentenced to death for the 1976 slaying of Birmingham-Southern College student Quenette Shehane, was taken into the death chamber at Holman Prison shortly before midnight, strapped into the electric chair and pronounced dead at 12:19 a.m. CDT, prison officials said.In seeking a stay, Thomas's lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, argued that Alabama's electric chair, built by an inmate 60 years ago at the prison, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment because it is obsolete and improperly operated.