Alabama has executed James Barber for the 2001 beating death of a 75-year-old Madison County woman.
The execution early Friday morning at Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore came after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Barber, 64, to stop the lethal injection execution because he claimed the previous two attempts on other inmates in 2022 were botched due to the extended time it took prison personnel to identify veins for the IVs.
Barber gave a brief final statement, offering an apology to the family of Dorothy Epps, whom he was convicted of beating to death in 2001 in her home in Harvest near Huntsville.
“To the Epps family, I love them,” Barber said. “I’m sorry for what happened. I truly am. I regret it. ... No words fit.”
Barber also told his family that he loved them. His brother Glen Barber was among the execution witnesses, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. Barber closed his statement calling Gov. Kay Ivey by name and addressing the prison officials and execution team, saying, “In the words of my Lord and savior Jesus Christ, I forgive you for what you are about to do.”
Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a press release, stating that Barber died at 1:56 a.m. Friday. “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.”
Ivey also issued a statement, saying that “Tonight, the justice that James Barber managed to avoid for more than two decades has finally been served. In 2001, 75-year-old Dorothy Epps desperately fought for her life as Mr. Barber brutally and gruesomely beat her to death in her own home. The facts are clear: Mr. Barber confessed to his guilt, and the jury has spoken. His litany of appeals to delay justice finally came to an end, and Mr. Barber has answered for his horrendous crime. In Alabama, we will always work to enforce the law and uphold justice.”
The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for the execution after issuing an order just after 12 a.m. Friday rejecting Barber’s appeal. Justices voted 6-3 to deny the appeal.
Barber had argued that his Eighth Amendment rights would be violated if put to death by lethal injection. Barber’s lawyers stated their client could be subject to multiple punctures in an effort to establish IV lines to deliver the deadly combination of drugs. Those multiple punctures, growing more painful with each stick of the needle, constituted “cruel and unusual punishment,” his lawyers maintained.
The lawyers noted two failed executions in 2022 because of problems setting the IVs.
John Q. Hamm, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, said officials needed three sticks of Barber to secure two IV lines within six minutes. Barber had IV lines in each hand.
The curtain to witness rooms opened in the execution chamber at 1:30 a.m. Barber appeared alert and shifted occasionally while strapped to the gurney. After giving his final statement, Barber appeared to become anxious while awaiting the fatal drugs to enter his system. A spiritual adviser briefly approached Barber, touching his foot that was covered in a tight white sheet and remained with him in the execution chamber. Barber appeared to be speaking to him.
The drugs appeared to first enter Barber’s body at 1:37 a.m. as the IV lines shook. Barber closed his eyes a minute later. A guard attending to Barber checked to see if he was conscious at 1:39 a.m. and there was no response as the guard shouted his name, brushed his eyelids and pinched him under his left arm.
By 1:42 a.m., there was no more movement in Barber’s chest. The curtain closed at 1:47 a.m.
In its order, there was no written opinion from the majority of the Supreme Court upholding a lower court’s ruling allowing the execution to go forward. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissenting opinion, which was joined by justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“This Court’s decision denying Barber’s request for a stay allows Alabama to experiment again with a human life,” Sotomayor wrote in concluding her opinion.
Barber was convicted by a Madison County jury in 2003 for the brutal murder of Epps in her Harvest home near Huntsville. Epps was beaten to death with Barber’s fists and a claw hammer in her Harvest home, according to court records. She suffered multiple skull fractures, head lacerations, brain bleeding, and rib fractures.
The Alabama Department of Corrections had until 6 a.m. Friday to carry out Barber’s execution due to a time table created by the state this year. Instead of having 24 hours to execute an inmate before the death warrant expires, the time has been extended to 30 hours.
Last words
Friday morning one of Barber’s attorneys released this statement from Barber to news outlets:
God is so good! My life was over. Someone whom I loved’s life was over. I was in jail with no bond, no chances left. At the edge of the Abyss. Everything gone in the wink of an eye. But… I opened a Bible. And God reached down, lifted me up in His hands and said, “Now, you are ready for me to use as an instrument for My glory.”!!!
I read and learned of Him. As I did, He brought light into the deepest darkness a man can find himself in. He brought peace where there was only chaos. He brought joy, where there was only despair. He brought wisdom to a fool. He brought life to one who was dead!
God is the creator of everything. He created a new thing in me. Gave me wisdom I never had and assured me of a permanent dwelling place in his presence! I’ve strived to show Him my love and utter awe at the great gift He gave by the way I’ve tried to live. At times, I know I’ve failed to do my best. But I made up my mind early on that mere words could not express my sorrow at what had occurred at my hands. And so I hoped that the way I lived my life would be a testimony to the family of Dorothy Epps and also my family, of the regret and shame I have for what I’ve done. I don’t know if I’ve succeeded. That’s not for me to judge. But I also told my brother on the phone from the county jail that I was never going to become a convict. Said I wouldn’t cut my hair like one, conduct myself like one. I wanted, when I either walk out of prison or am carried out in a body bag, to be a better man than when I walked into prison.
I hope God finds my efforts worthy. I hope the Epps family will know I did the only thing that I thought could show my deep regret, and it helps them somehow. Please pray for the Epps family. I love them deeply. Pray for my family, for peace and strength.
May the God of all creation create a new thing for each of you and lead you into the greatest, most spiritual era of your lives.
Be instruments for His glory! I love you and thank you in Christ.
-- Jimi
Last meal
Barber spent his last 24 hours before his scheduled execution Thursday night.
The ADOC said that Barber refused breakfast Thursday and ate snacks. For his final meal, Barber requested loaded hashbrowns, western omelet, spicy sausage and white toast. On Wednesday, Barber had 10 visitors and six phone calls. On Thursday, he had 22 visitors and two phone calls.
Witnesses for Barber at his execution are to include his brother, Glen Barber, Elizabeth Bruenig (a reporter for The Atlantic and listed by ADOC as a friend) and attorneys John Gallo and Mara Rose Easterbrook Klebaner. Five media members were also cleared by ADOC to witness the execution.
Witnesses for victim Dorothy Epps requested they not be identified. The state of Alabama also had several witnesses.
Appeals
The ruling by the Supreme Court followed appeals this week to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which also ultimately rejected Barber’s appeals.
Barbert sought protection under the Eighth Amendment that prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment,” citing recent problems the state of Alabama has encountered in its most recent execution attempts. The state’s last two execution attempts were aborted when an IV line to deliver the deadly combination of drugs could not be established. Prior to that, the most recent execution required multiple punctures in the body of Joe James to find an adequate connection.
Nitrogen hypoxia
The appeal asked for Barber to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, a method that does not require IV lines. The Alabama Department of Corrections has said it will not be prepared to carry out that method of execution until late in the year. Nitrogen hypoxia has never been attempted in any state.
Such a method would “completely avoid the risk of such needless physical and emotional suffering (if multiple attempts are needed to establish an IV connection),” the appeal said. The 11 Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument Wednesday from Barber in a 2-1 decision.
After Friday morning’s execution Hamm said a nitrogen hypoxia protocol could be ready in two months.
An alternate ruling, the appeal said, “would prevent Alabama from subjecting him to a fourth lethal injection execution that will likely be botched in the same manner as the prior three.”
In its response to James Barber’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution, the Alabama attorney general’s office dismissed claims by Barber’s attorneys that their client would be subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment,” as prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.
The state’s response also outlined that issues last year when two executions had to be stopped were unique cases tied in part to health issues of the condemned inmates. And that Barber has presented no evidence that he would be in danger of multiple attempts to establish an IV line.
The state pointed to changes in its execution protocol that received the endorsement of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Wednesday rejected Barber’s plea to stop his execution based on the problems of Alabama’s failed two most recent execution attempts.
The district court found that “[t]hese intervening actions cut off the emerging pattern of past practices that could have elevated Barber’s claims from purely speculative to actionable,” the state wrote in its response.
Referring back to the failed attempts at executing Kenneth Smith in November 2022 and Alan Miller in Sepember 2022, the state wrote in its response, “Due to 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—two of the executions had to be called off when the team could not gain intravenous access. Barber alleges the same thing will happen to him, that he will therefore face multiple needle punctures, and that those needle punctures constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
“The district court disagreed.”
Barber’s defense attorneys said the state of Alabama misinterpreted Barber’s last-day plea to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution.
In a filing to the Supreme Court responding to the state’s filing, Barber’s attorneys reiterated that he is in danger of a painful, prolonged attempts to establish IV lines that will carry a combination of fatal drugs into his body. The situation could resemble the two aborted execution attempts last year because IV lines could not be established, the filing said.
“(Barber’s) core claim is that Alabama has botched three consecutive executions and, after undertaking a review, has admitted it made no material change,” the filing said.
The reference to “botched three consecutive executions” includes Joe James, who was put to death in July 2022 but after, an autopsy showed, he was subjected to multiple punctures by personnel trying to establish an IV line. The planned executions of Alan Miller in September 2022 and Kenneth Smith in November 2022 were halted when IV connections could not be made before the midnight death warrant expired.
Changes outlined by the state in the aftermath of those failures include new personnel for the IV team and extending the execution time limit from 24 to 30 hours.
“This case presents a much narrower issue: whether there can ever be an Eighth Amendment violation through repeated punctures to establish IV access, no matter how many futile attempts are made or for how long,” the reply from Barber’s attorneys said. “The 11th Circuit’s answer to that question was ‘no,’ but this court has repeatedly made clear that a punishment which ‘superadds’ pain well beyond what’s needed to effectuate a death sentence’ is, in fact, cruel.”
In other action Thursday:
- Petitions were delivered to Gov. Kay Ivey -- one asking for her to call off the execution and the other asking for more transparency in the execution process, according to a press release. The governor’s office confirmed the petitions were received. “The world is watching Alabama today because the last two men Alabama tried to execute, Kenneth Smith and Alan Miller, were poked and sliced for hours before time ran out, and those men are still alive today,” Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, said in the press release. “All of this debate about execution methods and now asking trained medical professionals to violate the ethics of their professions is embarrassing to a country that considers itself a standard bearer for human rights. The prisoner notwithstanding, what about the lifelong trauma we are asking prison workers to take on?”
- A federal court ruling Thursday prohibited an attorney for James Barber from bringing a plain wristwatch into the witness room. Attorney Mara Klebaner said in a filing Wednesday that prison officials told her she could not bring a click-top pen, notepad and plain wristwatch (not a smartwatch) into the witness room. U.S. District Judge Emily Marks ruled that Klebaner could bring a notepad and a click-top pen but did not permit a wristwatch. The state of Alabama had opposed Klebaner’s request. The issue of the wristwatch goes back to concerns raised by Barber’s attorneys about the extended amount of time personnel may need to successfully establish the IV lines. That has been problematic in the state’s last three execution attempts, only one of which was successful.
Gov. Ivey ordered a three-month halt to lethal injections during an internal investigation prompted by the failed attempts to kill Alan Miller in September 2022 and Kenneth Eugene Smith in November 2022.
That execution moratorium ended in February with few public changes to the lethal injection protocol. The only noticeable changes were the wholesale change of personnel involved in establishing the IVs and ending of the 24-hour rule. State officials said that time frame proved too short because the teams tasked with setting up the IV lines used for the three-drug lethal cocktail couldn’t complete their work – which couldn’t begin until all appeals had been exhausted -- by the midnight deadline.
Previously, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm called the midnight rule “unnecessary deadline pressure for Department personnel.”
The issue of personnel changes that stemmed from the internal investigation—one many prison advocates opposed and said should be conducted by a group that wasn’t affiliated with the ADOC—also included purchasing new equipment for lethal injections and having a “vetting process” for outside medical professionals tasked with helping set up executions, according to a letter from Hamm to the governor.
An updated, redacted version of the department’s lethal injection protocol, attached to Barber’s federal lawsuit, shows the IV team will have “more (REDACTED) professionals” who “shall be currently certified or licensed within the United States.” The redacted protocol does not specify which license must be held.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday night rejected Barber’s appeals to stop the execution in a 2-1 vote. The court ruled that the state had been substantial adjustments to its protocols in allowing Barber’s execution to go forward despite a sharp dissent by Judge Jill Pryor. Referring to the aborted executions of Miller and Smith last fall and the struggle to establish IV lines in Joe James – the state’s last execution in July 2022 – Pryor wrote in her dissent, “Three botched executions in a row are three too many.”
Barber’s attorneys are expected to appeal the 11th Circuit decision to the Supreme Court today. They have asked for Barber to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia – which would avoid the issue with the IVs but has never been attempted in any state. ADOC has said it will not be prepared to use nitrogen hypoxia until late this year and the state has argued that Barber did not request the new format in a timely manner. That method was approved by the state legislature and Ivey in 2018.
Alabama officials gave death row inmates a month in June 2018 to opt-in to dying by the new method after it was made legal by state law, but Barber was not one of the dozens of inmates who signed paperwork choosing the new method.
In June, the Alabama Attorney General’s office claimed Barber’s execution could be carried out using the new method, where an inmate would theoretically die by breathing in pure nitrogen without any source of oxygen and suffocating. But soon after the agency made their claim, the Alabama Department of Corrections told AL.com they were not ready to start nitrogen executions.
“The protocol for carrying out executions by this method is not yet complete,” an ADOC spokesperson said June 26. “Once the nitrogen hypoxia protocol is complete, ADOC personnel will need sufficient time to be thoroughly trained before an execution can be conducted using this method.”
This story was updated at 9:50 a.m. to include statement from Barber
AL.com reporter Ivana Hrynkiw contributed to this report.