The state of Alabama says it has executed a man who beat a woman to death in 2001, signalling the resumption of lethal injections following a pause to review procedures.
James Barber, 64, was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison on Friday.
Barber was convicted and sentenced for killing 75-year-old Dorothy Epps. Prosecutors said Barber, a handyman, confessed to attacking Epps with a claw hammer and fleeing with her purse. Jurors voted 11-1 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed.
It was the first execution carried out in Alabama this year after the state halted executions last year. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced a pause on executions in November to conduct an internal review of procedures.
Botched executions
The move came after the state halted two lethal injections because of difficulties inserting IVs into the condemned men’s veins. Advocacy groups claimed a third execution, carried out after a delay because of IV problems, was botched, a claim the state has disputed.
Barber’s attorneys unsuccessfully asked the courts to block the execution, saying the state has a pattern of failing "to carry out a lethal injection execution in a constitutional manner."
The state asked the courts to let the execution proceed.
"Mrs. Epps and her family have waited for justice for twenty-two years," the Alabama attorney general’s office wrote in a court filing.
Barber’s execution came hours after Oklahoma executed Jemaine Cannon for stabbing a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after his escape from a prison work centre.
