Man convicted of killing boss scheduled to be executed in Alabama
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A man convicted of killing the woman who hired him to work with a traveling carnival nearly two decades ago was set to be executed Thursday night after dropping his appeals and asking to be put to death.
Michael Wayne Eggers, 50, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. at a southwest Alabama prison.
Eggers was sentenced to death for the 2000 strangulation of his employer, Bennie Francis Murray.
Prosecutors said Eggers admitted to strangling Murray during an argument after she hired him to work concessions for a carnival. Her body was found in Walker County northwest of Birmingham.
Eggers dropped his appeals and had asked the state to set an execution date.
His former attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. They argued that Eggers suffers from schizophrenia and delusions and was mentally incompetent when he made the decision.
The state attorney general's office asked the court to let the execution proceed.
In 2016, following disagreements with his attorneys, Eggers asked Alabama to quickly schedule his execution. In a handwritten filing, he asked judges to dismiss appeals on his behalf and allow his "immediate execution in the interests of truth, law and justice."
His former lawyers argued that Eggers was mentally incompetent when he made the decision to drop his appeals and fire his appointed lawyers.
"Michael Eggers is severely mentally ill," his former attorneys wrote in a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
His former attorneys argued that Eggers believes he is the subject of a government conspiracy and "would rather die than be represented by lawyers who do not support his delusional view of his case."
The state argued that Eggers made a rational decision to drop his appeals. They noted that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017 upheld a district court's ruling that he was competent.