Alabama will move forward with its first execution by lethal injection following an eight-month pause due to failed attempts at 6 p.m. Central time Thursday evening after an appeals court said the inmate’s concern that the state will have problems executing him is "purely speculative."
FILE- Alabama's lethal injection chamber at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., is ... [+]
A federal appeals court determined 2-1 on Wednesday that the Alabama Department of Corrections completed a full review of and adjusted its execution policies, meaning inmate James Barber’s concern that he will be subject to “substantial harm” was “purely speculative.”
However, the dissenting judge—Jill Pryor—took issue with the Department of Corrections not saying “what went wrong or what it fixed”; Pryor said the state was using Barber “as its guinea pig” by moving forward with the execution.
Barber, who has been on death row since the early 2000s after being found guilty of robbing and killing a 75-year-old homeowner he was a handyman for, appealed the state’s decision to execute him, telling NBC News he had “a fair amount of trepidation” about being the first executed by lethal injection after the pause, saying the state hadn’t “perfected” the process.
Barber’s attorneys have asked the Supreme Court to block the execution, according to AL.com—his final legal maneuver to stop the lethal injection.
This undated photo provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows James Barber. A federal ... [+]
Since 2018, Alabama has had to stop three executions—the latest being the one in November that led to the pause—due to challenges finding a vein to administer lethal drugs through. In an attempted execution in September 2022, an inmate said prison staff poked him with needles for more than an hour while attempting to find a vein before stopping the execution. Following the third failed execution, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey asked for a pause in executions and a “top-to-bottom” review of the state’s methods. Ivey at the time made clear, however, that she didn’t think prison officials were at fault for the failed attempts—instead she blamed “legal tactics and criminals hijacking the system,” the New York Times reported. In reviewing the procedures, the Department of Corrections evaluated the training protocol for people involved in executions, potentially adding “personnel utilized” for executions, and “the equipment on-hand to support the individuals participating in the execution,” according to DOC Commissioner John Hamm, though no clarity was provided on exactly what changes were made. After the review, Hamm said “I am confident that the Department is as prepared as possible to resume carrying out executions,” even though “death row inmates will continue seeking to evade their lawfully imposed death sentences.”
Alabama has been the only state since 2017 that has had to stop an execution in progress, NBC News reported.