Alabama put James Barber to death by lethal injection on Friday morning for beating an elderly woman to death 22 years ago. This was the state’s first execution by lethal injection after a pause of several months to review processes.
At 1:56 a.m., Barber, who was 64 years old, was declared dead at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. He was found guilty of killing 75-year-old Dorothy Epps in May 2001 with a claw hammer at her home in the town of Harvest and running away with her purse. He was put to death for the crime.
The Alabama Department of Corrections says that he ate “loaded” hash browns, a western omelet, hot sausage, and toast for his last meal.
State Attorney General Steve Marshall said that Barber was a handyman who had worked on repairs for Epps and had dated her daughter in the past.
Barber was caught a few days after the murder, and he told the cops everything he had done. According to the office of the attorney general, he said that the act he committed was “senseless and stupid” and that he should be “charged and put to death” for it.
James Barber, who was 64 years old, was put to death by lethal injection on Friday morning for killing Dorothy Epps, 75, at her home in Harvest, Alabama, in 2001. (AP via Alabama Department of Corrections)
Even though Barber’s lawyers asked for a delay because Alabama “failed to carry out a lethal injection execution in a constitutional way,” the execution went ahead. Near midnight on Thursday, the Supreme Court said no to the stay. This gave the state until 6 a.m. to start the execution.
“The right thing has been done. “This morning, James Barber was put to death for the horrible crime he committed over 20 years ago: the especially horrible and cruel murder of Dorothy Epps,” Marshall said in a statement Friday morning.
He continued, “I ask the people of Alabama to join me in praying for the victim’s family and friends, so that they can now find some peace and closure.”
Barber’s death was the first execution in Alabama since last fall. This was because Gov. Kay Ivey ordered an internal review of lethal injection methods after a series of problems led to a botched execution and two failed attempts between July and November of last year.
placeholder Ivey said in February that the state could start executing people again. Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said that because of the review, the prison system hired more doctors, ordered new tools, and held more practice sessions.
James Barber, who was 64, had 22 guests and two phone calls before he was put to death at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. (Photo by Jay Reeves for AP)
In their bid to stop the execution, Barber’s lawyers said that his execution “will probably go wrong in the same way as the last three.”
AG Marshall’s office asked the Supreme Court to let the execution happen, saying that the victim’s family has waited long enough “to see justice done.”
He said that the earlier executions were stopped because of a “confluence of events,” which included health problems that were unique to each prisoner and lawsuits that were filed at the last minute by the prisoners. This greatly cut down the time that ADOC officials had to carry out the executions.
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