Andrew Reid Lackey, 29, was executed Thursday at Holman Prison in Altmore, Alabama, the state’s first execution since 2011. Lackey was convicted for the 2005 murder of 80-year-old World War II veteran Charles Newman.
Lackey was friends with Newman’s grandson, who allegedly told Lackey that his grandfather had gold bars stored somewhere inside his house. In an attempt to rob him, Lackey shot, beat and stabbed Newman is his Athens, Alabama home.
Lackey, who was convicted for the murder in a Limestone County courthouse in 2008, did not make any appeals and asked for an execution to be scheduled.
A prisoner's rights group from Montgomery called The Equal Justice Initiative and argued that Lackey was mentally ill and suicidal so the judge should have further evaluated his mental competency before trial, Reuters reported. They even went to the courthouse to try to stop the execution, but an appeals court allowed the judge’s decision to stay in place.
Lackey was put to death by lethal injection. According to AL.com he did not wish to make a statement before his death, as his mother, father, brother and aunt watched.