Alabama death row inmate James Barber executed following pause over lethal injection concerns

Alabama death row inmate James Barber was executed early Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request for a stay over fears that he could be subject to “substantial harm" following a series of failed lethal injection attempts in the state.

The execution was carried out by lethal injection at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, the Alabama Department of Corrections said in a statement. Barber was pronounced dead by a physician at 1:56 a.m. local time (2:56 a.m. ET), it said.

Barber, 64, had been on death row for almost 20 years after being convicted of murder in the 2001 robbery and killing of Dorothy Epps, a 75-year-old homeowner for whom he worked as a handyman.

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The execution unfolded after a federal appeals court panel Wednesday rejected in a 2-1 ruling Barber’s request to block his execution over fears that he could be subject to “substantial harm."

State Attorney General Steve Marshall had agreed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling.

“Dorothy Epps was brutally murdered 22 years ago,” he said in a statement Thursday. “The Eleventh Circuit’s decision places us one step closer to justice for this heinous crime.”

Barber's execution was Alabama's first since a pause on capital punishment prompted by a series of failed lethal injections was lifted in February.

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In a phone interview with NBC News on Saturday, Barber expressed concerns over whether the state would be able to carry out his execution without incident.

“I have a fair amount of trepidation about the process that they obviously haven’t perfected — to be at their hands and be the first one after they didn’t do a true review of the protocol and made no real changes,” he said.

Barber said that he found salvation through Christianity during his time in prison, and that he had formed a friendship with Sarah Gregory, a granddaughter of the victim. Gregory has said she forgives him and did not want to see him executed.

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“I don’t want people to think, well, I want to die,” he said. “Nobody wants to die. I think there’s a lot that I can accomplish and people I can help. Change hearts. I’d like to be around, I would. But to make it clear, I’m not hanging on to this life."

Barber’s execution was also the first to be carried out under a new procedure approved by the state Supreme Court that allows the governor to set a time frame for when a death row inmate can be put to death, rather than within a single day with a midnight deadline.

Ivey previously said that a “brief pause in executions was necessary to make sure that we can successfully deliver that justice and that closure” to victims’ families.

The change came following a string of problematic executions in Alabama last year.

After a three-month review, Ivey announced that executions would resume after state Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said internal changes were being made, including ordering new equipment and ensuring appropriate staffing. Details about the review's findings were not released, however, with critics saying an outside agency should have evaluated the state's protocols.

The state attorney general’s office said in court filings that it was showing “good faith” by using a new IV team whose members are appropriately licensed. The state also said that no one who was responsible for setting IV lines in past executions would take part in Barber’s execution. Additional straps for securing an inmate on the execution gurney would be available, it added.

In 2018, Alabama approved the use of nitrogen hypoxia, an alternate execution method to lethal injection that causes death by breathing in nitrogen gas, but corrections officials have said the protocol for carrying it out is not yet complete.