Robin “Rocky” Dion Myers, a man who has long claimed innocence in the 1991 killing of a north Alabama woman, will not be put to death by Alabama.

Gov. Kay Ivey announced Friday she has commuted his sentence to life in prison without the chance of parole.

Myers, 63, was set to die by inhaling nitrogen this spring at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The New Jersey native has been on Alabama’s Death Row for more than 30 years, for the stabbing death of Ludie Mae Tucker.

Myers has long claimed he is innocent of the slaying of Tucker, 69, who lived across the street from Myers. She was stabbed to death in her Decatur home in October of 1991.

Ivey said in a Friday afternoon statement: “Thus far as governor, I have presided over 22 executions, and I will never waver in my belief that the death penalty is just punishment for society’s most serious crimes. I also reject all attempts to manipulate the system by activist lawyers for death row inmates who make unfounded claims of contrived injustices.”

READ MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE ROCKY MYERS CASE HERE

“However, in the case of Ludie Mae Tucker’s murder, I have enough questions about Mr. Myers’ guilt that I cannot move forward with executing him. For example, no murder weapon was found, and no DNA evidence or fingerprints or other physical evidence tied Mr. Myers to the scene of the crime. Although Ms. Tucker knew Mr. Myers and let her attacker inside the house, neither she nor Marie Dutton – the only two eyewitnesses to the crime – ever identified Mr. Myers as the assailant. There is also other circumstantial evidence, but it is riddled with conflicting evidence from seemingly everyone involved.”

The governor said she doesn’t completely stand by Myers’ innocence claim, but she’s not positive he’s guilty, either.

“In short, I am not convinced that Mr. Myers is innocent, but I am not so convinced of his guilt as to approve of his execution. I therefore must respect both the jury’s decision to convict him and its recommendation that he be sentenced to life without parole.

“This decision has been one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make as governor,” said Ivey.

“But it pales in comparison to the pain and suffering Ludie Mae Tucker and Marie Dutton endured on the night of October 4, 1991 – and to the many hardships the Tucker family has endured at the hands of our imperfect justice system. I pray that the Tucker family may, in some way, find closure and peace knowing this case is closed, and Mr. Myers will spend the rest of his life in prison.”

The announcement comes after a former juror on the case, Mae Puckett, came forward to say she didn’t think Myers was guilty and to asked the governor to grant clemency.

“They never ever placed him in the house that night,” Puckett told AL.com in 2023.

Tucker was inside her home when someone knocked on the door around midnight on Oct. 5, 1991. After the man entered the home, he stabbed Tucker and fled. Tucker told police she was stabbed by a short, stocky Black man, who was wearing a white or light-colored T-shirt with blood on it and possibly a plaid shirt overtop. Tucker knew Myers. But she didn’t indicate she knew the man who stabbed her, police said in court. She died later that night after giving police the description.

Myers’ son, Robin LeAndrew Hood, was 11 at the time and remembered Tucker giving his family ice from the machine on her front porch. And Myers’ wife at the time, Debbie Anthony, said she knew Tucker, too.

“The one thing that I don’t understand,” she previously told AL.com. “The woman knew my husband. Why didn’t she say Rocky did it?”

The last Alabama Death Row inmate to have their sentence commuted was Judith Ann Neelley. Neelley was originally sentenced to die for the slaying of a 13-year-old girl more than four decades ago. But her sentence was commuted to life in prison by former Alabama Gov. Fob James before he left office in 1999.

But the former governor’s order didn’t do what he planned, James said later. The order he authorized did not specify whether Neelley would be eligible for parole. The legislature changed state law in 2003 specifically to block Neelley from the possibility of parole, but a federal judge years later ruled that law unconstitutional.

Until now, she is the only death row inmate in modern Alabama history to be granted commutation.