ALABAMA LAST MEAL
JERRY PAUL HENDERSON
June 2, 2005

...her attorney was drunk during parts of her trial....

Last Meal: Henderson jokingly said that, for his last meal, he'd like to go to Red Lobster. Instead, he ate regular prison fare of fish, coleslaw, baked beans and French fries.

The Skinny: Henderson, 58, was executed for the 1984 shooting death of a Talladega man whose wife paid $3,000 for the killing.

More skinny: On New Years Eve, Henderson and his wife threw a party. Excusing himself from his guests, Henderson said he was not feeling well and went to lie down in a back bedroom. He sneaked out of a bedroom window, went to the home of his wife's sister, lured her husband outside the house, and shot him dead with a shotgun. He returned to the party with a ready-made alibi. Three years later, his wife came forward and admitted to police that her sister had paid Henderson $3,000 to murder the man. Upon arrest, Henderson, a maintenance mechanic with a seventh-grade education, confessed to the murder-for-hire plot. Both Henderson and the sister-in-law were convicted and sentenced to death. The woman had her sentenced reduced to life imprisonment after it surfaced that her attorney was drunk during parts of her trial.

Leading up to: Henderson's 28-year-old son, Jason, visited. The last time they had seen each other, the son was 11.

As his execution date neared, Henderson did not fight his fate. He declined to seek clemency from Gov. Bob Riley. Death penalty opponents appealed to the governor but were told that the clemency request must come from the condemned.

Last words and such: "I just want to say that I am very sorry for the pain that I have caused. I pray the family of Jerry Haney can find it in their heart one day to forgive the pain I have caused them. I pray they find peace and love in the Lord Jesus Christ as I have, because that's the true peace. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ that I'm fixing to see him face to face."

Factoids: Henderson was the

27th murderer executed in U.S. in 2005
971st murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
2nd murderer executed in Alabama in 2005
32nd murderer executed in Alabama since 1976