Following a lengthy pause to examine protocols, James Barber was put to death by lethal injection in Alabama on Friday morning for the violent beating death of an elderly woman 22 years prior.
At the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, 64-year-old Barber was declared deceased at 1:56 in the morning. After confessing to killing Dorothy Epps, 75, with a claw hammer at her home in the hamlet of Harvest in May 2001 and making off with her pocketbook, he was found guilty and given the death penalty.
According to the Alabama Department of Corrections, his last meal included bread, ‘loaded’ hash browns, a western omelette, spicy sausage and other items.
Steve Marshall, the state attorney general, claimed that Barber was a handyman who knew Epps from past relationships with her daughter and repair work.
Days after the murder, Barber was apprehended and gave a lengthy confession to authorities. According to the attorney general’s office, he stated that “the crime was senseless and stupid” and that he deserved “to be charged and put to death” for it.
Despite Barber’s attorneys’ plea for a stay, the execution went forward because Alabama “failed to carry out a lethal injection execution in a constitutional manner.” Near midnight on Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected the request for a stay, giving the state until 6 a.m. to begin the execution.
“Justice has been served. This morning, James Barber was put to death for the terrible crime he committed over two decades ago: the especially heinous, atrocious, 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, that they might now be able to find some sense of peace and closure.”
Barber’s execution was the state of Alabama’s first since the autumn of last year when Governor Kay Ivey ordered an internal review of the lethal injection process in response to a series of problems that included a botched execution and two failed attempts between July and November.
Ivey declared in February that the state might carry out executions once more. According to Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, the evaluation led to the jail system expanding its staff of medical specialists, ordering more equipment, and holding more rehearsals.
Barber’s attorneys said in their appeal for a stay of execution that his execution “will likely be botched in the same manner as the prior three.”
The office of AG Marshall pleaded with the Supreme Court to permit the execution, noting that the victim’s family had waited long enough “to see justice done.”
He stated that the previous executions were called off because of a “confluence of events—including health issues specific to the individual inmates and last-minute litigation brought by the inmates that dramatically shortened the window for ADOC officials to conduct the executions.”
According to the Department of Corrections, Barber received 22 visits and two phone calls in the days before his death.
