A man who spent 28 years on Alabama Death Row for arranging the murder of a police officer was recently resentenced and will be spared execution.

Larry Wayne Whitehead, 62, was convicted in 1996 for the death of Albertville police officer and detective Andrew Whitten. Whitten was set to testify against Whitehead in an upcoming theft trial, according to court records.

But in an appeal from 2014, Whitehead’s lawyers argued he was intellectually disabled and couldn’t be executed under the Supreme Court’s rules on cruel and unusual punishment.

Late last year, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office agreed.

In a motion to a Marshall County judge, Alabama’s top prosecutor said that a state expert had evaluated Whitehead and agreed that he was too intellectually disabled to be put to death.

In October 2024, Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office and Whitehead’s lawyers agreed to a settlement that would resentence Whitehead to spend his life behind bars, and in exchange, Whitehead would drop his appeals.

In December, a Marshall County judge formally resentenced Whitehead to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and recommended Whitehead be sent to the Hamilton Aged and Infirm Center.

Prison records show Whitehead is currently at the William Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer.

At the time of the slaying three decades ago, according to an Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals order, Whitehead was an employee at Hudson Foods, Inc. He had been operating a timecard scheme, punching in when he got to work and leaving, but coming back later in the day to punch out. Two other men, James Matthew Hyde and Stephen Brookshire, helped Whitehead by sometimes punching his timecard.

Yet the company became aware of the stolen time, called police, and Whitten was assigned to the case. Whitten interviewed Whitehead, and Whitehead was arrested for theft of about $12,000. And at the time of the theft arrest, Whitehead was on parole for another crime and had a criminal record.

Whitten testified in the 1994 grand jury that indicted Whitehead on the theft charge, and was set to testify at the Jan. 30, 1995 trial.

But Whitten didn’t take the stand. Instead, he was shot on Jan. 24, 1995, and died the next day.

Whitehead’s co-defendants, Brookshire and Hyde, said the three men drove to Whitten’s house. Brookshire, according to court records, said Hyde was the only one who went into the detective’s house and that Hyde shot him; Whitehead later testified at Hyde’s trial that he was the one who fired the bullet.

At Whitehead’s trial, both sides agreed that the testimony wasn’t true.

According to witnesses for the prosecution, Whitehead often talked about suing the food company “for making false allegations of theft,” according to the appeals court. Whitehead told friends that Whitten was the only witness in the theft case and if he was gone, Whitehead would be acquitted. If he was acquitted, Whitehead told people, he would win the civil lawsuit.

Court records show Whitehead planned the attack, approached several people about being involved and was “obsessed with the idea of a lawsuit against Hudson Foods.” Prior to the murder, Whitehead reportedly told someone “if Andy Whitten was out of the way” he would win the lawsuit, and that the cop was the only witness.

Hyde is currently serving a life without parole sentence, too. Hyde, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, was also originally sentenced to death, but was resentenced after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling said juveniles cannot be put to death.

Brookshire was sentenced to 25 years in prison.