Alabama uses lethal injection to execute James Barber after pause to review procedure

• Alabama executed James Barber by lethal injection on Friday.
• This execution method had been paused while they reviewed the procedure.
• Why was 64-year-old Barber on death row?

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Alabama executed James Barber by lethal injection on Friday

Alabama executed James Barber, who was convicted of beating a woman to death in 2001. The state reintroduced lethal injection on Friday after a pause to review the procedure. James Barber, 64, was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at a south Alabama jail.

Barber was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 beating of 75-year-old Dorothy Epps. Prosecutors said Barber, a maintenance man, confessed to killing Epps with a hammer before fleeing with her purse. The jury voted 11-1 for the death penalty.

This was the first execution carried out in Alabama this year.

This was the first execution carried out in Alabama this year after the state suspended them last fall. Gov. Kay Ivey announced a pause in November for an internal review of the procedure, The Associated Press reported.

The decision was made after the state stopped the administration of two lethal injections due to the difficulty in placing the intravenous lines. Several groups said that a third process, which was delayed by problems with the road, was botched, something the state disputed.

Barber’s lawyers unsuccessfully petitioned the courts to prevent the execution

Barber’s lawyers unsuccessfully petitioned the courts to stop the execution, arguing that the state has a pattern of not «carrying out executions by lethal injection constitutionally.» Nonetheless the state insisted on going through with it.

«Mrs. Epps and her family have been waiting for justice for 22 years,» the Alabama attorney general’s office said in a brief filed with the court. Opinions are divided among locals who are familiar with the case.

The death penalty has been the subject of intense debate

Amid a growing controversy over the death penalty in the US, Alabama continues to use lethal injection as its primary method of execution. This controversial practice has been the subject of heated debate in the legal and human rights arena, drawing criticism from advocates of abolishing the death penalty.

Defenders of lethal injection argue that this method is more «humane» than older methods used in the past, such as the electric chair or the gallows. However, opponents of the death penalty argue that lethal injection violates the right not to suffer cruel and inhumane punishment. They also point out that there is a possibility that some convicts are innocent and this makes any mistake by the judicial system irreversible.