Execution date set for inmate convicted of preacher’s death

Published 6:31 pm Monday, March 11, 2019

By Kim Chandler
The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY — Alabama has set an execution date for an inmate convicted of killing a preacher in a robbery more than two decades ago.

Christopher Lee Price is scheduled to be put to death on April 11, according to an order from the state Supreme Court.

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Price was convicted of the 1991 stabbing death of Bill Lynn, who was pastor of the Natural Springs Church of Christ.

Lynn was killed with a sword and knife during a robbery at his home on Dec. 22, 1991.

Prosecutors said Lynn was at home with his wife assembling Christmas presents when the power was cut to their home. Lynn was stabbed when he went outside to check the fuse box, prosecutors said.

Price has an ongoing lawsuit arguing the state’s lethal injection drug combination will cause excruciating pain. His attorneys contend that the first drug, a sedative, doesn’t guarantee unconsciousness.

They wrote that he has asked to be executed by nitrogen, a method the state has authorized but has not yet used. The state responded in a court filing that death row inmates had a 30-day window to request nitrogen as their execution method, and Price missed that deadline.

It is the second scheduled execution in Alabama in 2019.

Dominique Ray was executed Feb. 7 at an Alabama prison for the 1995 murder of 15-year-old Tiffany Harville.