A man convicted in a 1988 murder of a Jasper woman is asking a court to rule his death sentence unconstitutional, arguing he didn’t sexually assault the victim with a broomstick like the prosecutor at his trial claimed.

Gregory Hunt, 65, has been on Alabama’s Death Row for almost 35 years. A jury in 1990 recommended 11 to 1 that he be sentenced to death for the brutal, and fatal, attack on Karen Sanders Lane.

He’s set to die by inhaling pure nitrogen gas on June 10.

Lane’s body was found in her friend’s Walker County apartment early in the morning on Aug. 2, 1988. At trial, medical experts testified that Lane suffered from extensive injuries including 20 injuries to the head; a total of 24 fractured ribs; a fractured breast bone; bruises to her lungs and heart; tears to her liver, aorta, and pancreas; bleeding in her neck muscles; and more.

Hunt’s hand and fingerprints matched those left at the scene and a neighbor said she saw Hunt entering the apartment that night. In 1994, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals wrote, “Our review of the record convinces us that the evidence against the appellant was, in fact, overwhelming.”

Hunt was dating Lane at the time of the slaying. After the attack, he called the boyfriend of Lane’s friend to tell him that someone should go check on Lane because she was “in the kitchen floor.”

Now, Hunt is representing himself to try and get his upcoming execution called off.

In his appeal filed in state court last month, Hunt said that the original prosecutor in the case argued a broomstick found next to Lane’s legs had cervical mucus on it, indicating that she had been sexually assaulted with it. Hunt argued in his latest filing that Lane did not have a cervix — autopsy records show her cervix had been removed in a hysterectomy sometime before her death — and the prosecutor’s claim was misleading.

“Without sex abuse as charged,” wrote Hunt, “Mr. Hunt is not guilty of capital murder, nor felony murder. The jury would have likely convicted him of the lesser including (included) offense of murder.”

“He has served his time for murder or would likely have been released on parole,” he wrote. He’s asking Walker County Circuit Judge Joeletta Martin Barrentine for a new trial and “a reasonable bond.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office replied to Hunt’s claims, arguing in court records that the trial prosecutor inferred that the broomstick had been inserted into Lane’s vagina, but no expert specified that—only that it had been inserted somewhere in her body.

Lane, 32, was from Jasper, and was staying with a friend at her Cordova apartment at the time of her murder. In the summer of 1988, she started dating that friend’s cousin, Hunt. According to court records, Hunt had told multiple people he was angry with Lane about a month later, and had even set her home on fire before the murder.

“One piece of evidence was a broomstick found lying between the victim’s legs, which was determined to have epithelial cells on the end—that is, cells from a mucus-producing orifice,” wrote Assistant Alabama Attorney General Lauren Simpson. An expert at trial thought the broomstick had been inserted into Lane’s vagina, but said the mucus could have come from another orifice.

“The pathologist did not testify falsely—rather, the prosecutor drew an inference from the evidence that, while supported, may have been inaccurate,” wrote Simpson.

Both sides had access to the information at the time of Hunt’s original trial that Lane did not have a cervix, according to court documents.

The Alabama Attorney General’s Office also said in a response to Hunt’s lawsuit that there is evidence beyond the broomstick that Lane was sexually assaulted.

“In light of the victim’s hysterectomy, the prosecutor may well have been mistaken when he argued that the mucus on the broomstick was cervical in origin. But the prosecutor had an evidentiary basis for his argument…”

The doctor at trial “did not give false testimony. That the prosecutor may have misinterpreted the facts (even if his conclusion was ultimately supported) does not mean that the State knowingly solicited or used false evidence.”

In a message sent to AL.com through the Alabama Department of Corrections messaging app for inmates, Hunt talked about his pending execution.

“My personal feelings about the pending execution are same as words Jesus said to Pilate,” he wrote.

When asked why he moved to represent himself in court, Hunt replied that firms who do death penalty work “do not desire to see a death row prisoner go free.”

He wrote, “They do not try to end the death penalty though they put on as if they do… They do not mind trying to get us off death row but fear if they truly fight for a just outcome and state has to set us free, they’d suffer blowback if one set free committed another crime… Prosecutors, Judges, Politicians, all use (the death penalty) to build resume, and create legacy for their family name.”