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July 21, 2023
Alabama completes execution (seemingly without difficulty) after three Justices dissent from stay denial based on execution protocol concerns
As reported in this AP article, "Alabama executed a man on Friday for the 2001 beating death of a woman as the state resumed lethal injections after failed executions prompted the governor to order an internal review of procedures." Here is more:
James Barber, 64, was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison. “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,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.
Barber was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 beating death of Epps. Prosecutors said Barber, a handyman, confessed to killing the 75-year-old with a claw hammer and fleeing with her purse. Jurors voted 11-1 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. Before he was put to death, Barber told his family he loved them and apologized to Epps’ family....
It was the first execution carried out in Alabama this year after the state halted executions in November. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced a pause on executions to conduct an internal review of procedures.... Alabama’s governor announced in February that the state was resuming executions. Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said prison system had added to its pool of medical professionals, ordered new equipment and conducted additional rehearsals.
The last-minute legal battle centered on Alabama’s ability to obtain intravenous access in past executions. Barber’s attorneys unsuccessfully asked the courts to block the execution, saying the state has a pattern of failing “to carry out a lethal injection execution in a constitutional manner.”...
Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the two intravenous lines were connected to Barber with “three sticks in six minutes.” The Supreme Court denied Barber’s request for a stay without comment. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent from the decision that was joined by Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She said the court was allowing “Alabama to experiment again with a human life.”
Justice Sotomayor's opinion dissenting from the denial of the application for a stay runs 11 pages and is available at this link. Here is how it gets started:
Just last year in Alabama, in three consecutive executions by lethal injection, prison officials spent multiple hours digging for prisoners’ veins in an attempt to set IV lines. Two of the men survived and reported experiencing extreme pain, including, in one case, nerve pain equivalent to electrocution. After those executions failed, the State began what it claimed would be a “top-to-bottom” review of its lethal injection process. Barber v. Governor of Ala., ___ F. 4th ___, ___, 2023 WL 4622945, *13 (CA11, July 19, 2023) (Pryor, J., dissenting). During this review, conducted by the very agency that botched the executions, the State offered no explanations for the failures and reported “[n]o deficiencies” in its protocols. Id., at *15.
Now, the State seeks to execute James Edward Barber. Barber has timely raised an Eighth Amendment method of execution claim in federal court, arguing that he will be subject to the same fate as last year’s prisoners. Yet Alabama plans to kill him by lethal injection in a matter of hours, without ever allowing him discovery into what went wrong in the three prior executions and whether the State has fixed those problems. The Eighth Amendment demands more than the State’s word that this time will be different. The Court should not allow Alabama to test the efficacy of its internal review by using Barber as its “guinea pig.” Id., at *11. It should grant Barber’s application for a stay of his execution.
July 21, 2023 at 08:54 AM | Permalink
Comments
Alabama prisons, especially Death Row, could stand a few inmate uprisings against the pigs. Trans people in Alabama should arm themselves against pigs like Governor Kay Ivey!
Posted by: william delzell | Jul 21, 2023 10:51:25 AM
Mr. Delzell. --
Keep on posting, please!
Posted by: Bill Otis | Jul 21, 2023 11:21:14 AM
Bill,
If only people like Mr. Delzell showed similar outrage for beating a 75 year old woman to death with a claw hammer.
He is the perfect face of the pro-crime movement.
Posted by: TarlsQtr | Jul 21, 2023 11:32:40 AM
TarlsQtr--
He is that, but he's also a total hoot.
Posted by: Bill Otis | Jul 21, 2023 12:23:16 PM
Hmmmm. Why don't we use Sotomayor's rationale against federal agencies when they screw the pooch?
Posted by: federalist | Jul 21, 2023 12:30:57 PM
"The Eighth Amendment demands more than the State’s word that this time will be different."
How so?
Posted by: federalist | Jul 21, 2023 12:31:59 PM
For some comic relief:
https://redstate.com/beckynoble/2023/07/21/wait-for-it-hunter-biden-attorney-files-ethics-complaint-against-rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-n780068
Abbe Lowell is trash. What an epic piece of work.
Posted by: federalist | Jul 21, 2023 6:44:00 PM
TarlsQtr:
Ivey's only reason for signing the death warrent was not to avenge the victim, a 75 year old women, but to make herself look like a "victim's rights" advocate. Giving the killer life without parole would make society safer and save taxpayer money from automatic appeals by death row inmates.
As for her attacks on trans-people who have NOT committed grisly crimes like the person just executed, she is totally out of line. These trans people she is persecuting have not done anybody any harm. Ivey likes to persecute the marginalized because she can get away with it. If she tried to target Catholics or Jews, she would have hell to pay as they have powerful protectors.
It has been my experience that people like Kay Ivey who conjure up keen delight in targeting politically vulnerable groups like trans people have major skeletons in their closet. I would not be surprised if we find out later that Ivey herself is a major sex predator who falsely implicates innocent gays and trans to cover up her far more serious crimes. The Republican Party has more than its share of sex predators like many of Tennessee's state legilsators, Dennis Hastarrt, Mike Bauman, and other men and women who covered up their horrible sex crimes by making scapegoats of innocent gays and trans.
Also, people like Kay Ivey, Joe Stalin, and Adolf Hitler would first target vulnerable and hated groups like either Jews or gays for the purpose of susbsequently extending their persecution to lesser vulnerable groups.
No, Kay Ivey is no friend of crime victims and is certainly no friend of our country's Constitution. One of these days, you might find yourself a victim of one of her false accusations.
Posted by: william r. delzell | Jul 22, 2023 9:06:57 PM
Ivey's support for bullying of trans-people is not "law 'n' order", much less "victims'rights"! Just the opposite. SHE is the criminal beating up on marginalized people who have no protector. I would not put it past Ivey to commit sex crimes against these people herself. I hope she gets her comeuppance either here or in the hereafter. It's just like that quote: "Mr./Ms.So &so never missed church on Sunday, but still went to Hell for what he or she did on Monday."
Ivey needs to be shown up for the rat she really is!
Posted by: william r. delzell | Jul 22, 2023 9:11:44 PM
William Delzell,
First, please use my desired pronouns, “master/my liege.”
“ Ivey's only reason for signing the death warrent was not to avenge the victim, a 75 year old women, but to make herself look like a "victim's rights" advocate. Giving the killer life without parole would make society safer and save taxpayer money from automatic appeals by death row inmates.”
Evidence? Or do you just like to ascribe motive to anyone you don’t like?
There are other ways to save money. Do away with many of the automatic appeals.
We are not safer with LWOP. In fact, there is no such thing. People like you are already fighting that too.
“ As for her attacks on trans-people who have NOT committed grisly crimes like the person just executed, she is totally out of line. These trans people she is persecuting have not done anybody any harm. Ivey likes to persecute the marginalized because she can get away with it. If she tried to target Catholics or Jews, she would have hell to pay as they have powerful protectors.”
Who are these persecuted people and how did she persecute them? I see lack of support for her laws regarding transgender people as “persecuting” children and women.
“ It has been my experience that people like Kay Ivey who conjure up keen delight in targeting politically vulnerable groups like trans people have major skeletons in their closet. I would not be surprised if we find out later that Ivey herself is a major sex predator who falsely implicates innocent gays and trans to cover up her far more serious crimes. The Republican Party has more than its share of sex predators like many of Tennessee's state legilsators, Dennis Hastarrt, Mike Bauman, and other men and women who covered up their horrible sex crimes by making scapegoats of innocent gays and trans.”
The only “keen delight” I see is on the faces of drag queens as they shake their asses in the faces of kids.
Sex predators are in both parties, although men sticking their asses in kids’ faces and putting porn in the schools seem to all come from one.
“Also, people like Kay Ivey, Joe Stalin, and Adolf Hitler would first target vulnerable and hated groups like either Jews or gays for the purpose of susbsequently extending their persecution to lesser vulnerable groups.“
I’m going to just let the above statement sink in.
You need help, dude. You really do.
Posted by: TarlsQtr | Jul 22, 2023 10:12:30 PM
A drag queen who merely tells stories to children at a library in the presence of parents who consent, that is not child molesting. Now, if the drag queen made an inappropriate remark to the child, that would be different. But if a parent is present and consents and the drag queen is merely reading a story to them, that is not sex preditation.
What about these Southern Baptist and Catholic clergy, priests, and nuns who sexually and physically prey on children? Why do they get off scot free when they actually abuse and molest children without any social condemnation when trans-children who do not molest anybody get bullied?
No, Tarls Qtr, I don't need help. Anybody who persecutes somebody whose only "crime" is to want to be of a different gender is not molesting or endangering anybody.
Do you think it is right to bully trans-kids and to drive them to suicide? If you do, then you are not really for victims' rights when THEY instead of YOU are the crime victim. These bullies need to answer for what they did
If you have a pathological hatred for gays and trans-gendered people by falsely lumping them with sex predators, then YOU need help, not me!
Posted by: william r. delzell | Jul 23, 2023 7:38:26 AM
William,
Bill is right. You are a hoot.
“A drag queen who merely tells stories to children at a library in the presence of parents who consent, that is not child molesting. Now, if the drag queen made an inappropriate remark to the child, that would be different. But if a parent is present and consents and the drag queen is merely reading a story to them, that is not sex preditation.”
Hey, I’m over here. Why are you shooting at your straw men in the corner? No one called it, “child molesting.” However, it is social grooming. As a good parent, in addition to not allowing my kid to be read to by mentally ill men in garish clothes and “woman face,” I wouldn’t allow women dressed like that to do it either. As far as parental consent, that is far less important in publicly funded buildings. It’s also done with the legitimacy of democracy.
“ What about these Southern Baptist and Catholic clergy, priests, and nuns who sexually and physically prey on children? Why do they get off scot free when they actually abuse and molest children without any social condemnation when trans-children who do not molest anybody get bullied?”
Totally irrelevant, but if you want to go there…Sexual predation in the churches is the same rate as the rest of society. One place it is significantly higher? The public schools, which generally support the perversion of children.
“ No, Tarls Qtr, I don't need help. Anybody who persecutes somebody whose only "crime" is to want to be of a different gender is not molesting or endangering anybody.”
Yes, you do. There is no “persecution.” There is the prevention of adults sexualizing children regardless if the individual intends to personally molest or not.
Do I need to post the clip of the SanFran Gay Choir singing, “We are coming for your children?” Or marchers at the NY LGBTQWERTY&*)’+= parade chanting the same?
“ Do you think it is right to bully trans-kids and to drive them to suicide? If you do, then you are not really for victims' rights when THEY instead of YOU are the crime victim. These bullies need to answer for what they did”
No one should be bullied. Protecting cis kids is not “bullying” trans kids.
“If you have a pathological hatred for gays and trans-gendered people by falsely lumping them with sex predators, then YOU need help, not me!”
Some are sex predators. So are some cis people. So?
Posted by: TarlsQtr | Jul 23, 2023 9:55:33 PM
If the Republicans were really concerned about protecting children from sexual and physical abuse, they would crack down on these I.C.E. and D.E.A. police who abuse migrant children at the borders. The sight of these gangsters behind the badge corralling undocumented children into cages in the searing heat without water and food at the border, of forcibly separating children from their parents as slave owners in this country used to do before the Civil War, of I.C.E. cops tossing toddlers back into the river where they almost drowned, now this is real predatation against helpless children and their families. Just because these children are undocumented gives misfits wearing law enforcement badges the power to abuse and molest children in their care. The rightwingers like Gregg Abbot, Kay Ivey, and Company who support this are accessories to child abuse. The fact that I.C.E. has recently hired people without doing background checks allows many undesirables to get law enforcement badges to abuse little children with impunity. The idea of putting razor sharp wire in the Rio Grand with the intent of injuring aliens swimming to our shores is also sick and criminal. This is FAR WORSE than any drag queen reading stories in the library to children. The drag queens were not reading any sexually inappropriate material to these children. Their parents were present. If you want to stop the illegal immigration, then quit destabilizing the host countries of these undocumented aliens and they would no longer feel the need to come to our borders. The U.S. is responsible for this destabilization with its support of right-wing butchers who rape and murder poor and non-white indigenous people for the benefit of a few greedy rich white landowners and clerics.
As for grooming, your so-called conversion therapy program grooms children to hate gays, trans, and other non-conformists, and do this in a very sexually, mentally, and physically exploitive way. If you opposed the victimization of trans-children, you would oppose these "conversion" therapy programs for allowing unqualified staff members just off the street to mess with these children. Your so-called charter schools teach children to hate non-whites, trans-children, peace activists, civil rights activists, labor activists, and the like. Now, THAT is what I call grooming!
Posted by: william delzell | Jul 24, 2023 11:42:49 AM
William,
Disregarding the wild scenarios in your screed, who is in charge of ICE and the DEA?
My God, there are so many unsubstantiated claims in there it’s impossible to know where to begin.
You really are nuts.
Posted by: TarlsQtr | Jul 24, 2023 7:00:06 PM
Say what you want, TarlsQtr, but Amy Goodman's Democracy Now and other programs have exposed the brutality and racism that sets ICE's and DEA's agenda. Videos showing mounted ICE personnel using whips (yes, whips!) on fleeing migrants (a throwback to Antebellum slavery in the U.S.) or of them throwing helpless children into the Rio Grande, or of state politicians like Governor Abbott inputting razor wire barriers that have lacerated fleeing people, especially little children, should put the lie or any pretense about ICE, Greg Abbott, et al., being for "victims' rights" or about protecting little children. These politicians and law enforcement groups are the VICTIMIZERS! Get on the right team, fella!
Posted by: william delzell | Jul 25, 2023 11:43:36 AM
I can’t even get past the “whips” comment. You do realize that has been thoroughly debunked, even by the photographer who took the pictures? We knew it was fake over a year ago.
I don’t even need to address the rest of that BS.
Posted by: TarlsQtr | Jul 25, 2023 2:57:50 PM
TarlsQtr --
"Hoot about captures it. He's like one of these guys who reads Mother Jones and thinks he's getting the real story. This is what happens when you think leftist screeds give you "information." He's far from the only one here who suffers from this malady, but he has a bad case. And he's never going to admit that Biden is responsible for anything, even though he's been in office for over two years.
Posted by: Bill Otis | Jul 26, 2023 10:11:29 AM
I have my differences with Biden, chiefly on foreign and military policy where the only difference between him and the Republicans is his Democrat party label. Biden's blind support for Israeli persecutions of Palestinians, his support for Texas border policies that differ little from those of Greg Abbott except for Biden's party label, his blind support for military confrontation with China and Russia even if it risks world war and human annhilation, and his blind support for continued U.S. military involvement on the Korean Peninsula (a war that Truman was wrong to plunge our country in), are such examples. Only on certain DOMESTIC policies do I have anything in common with Biden. If Bernie Sanders or Jill Stein had run for President, I would have supported one of them over either Biden or Trump.
As for my reading Mother Jones, the Nation, etc., I find them more trustworthy than the National Review or Fox News even though I listen to them too despite my differences with them. Talk about hoots, De Santis's crazy assertion that slavery was beneficial to its victims is like saying that the Nazi Holocaust was beneficial to its Jewish victims by leading to the creation of Israel. (Curiously, some of Israel's founders like Menachim Begin were Nazi collaborators who felt that the creation of Israel was more important than stopping the Holocaust.
Posted by: william delzell | Jul 26, 2023 11:31:19 AM
William,
Just as you were wrong about “whips,” your claim regarding DeSantis is a lie.
Posted by: TarlsQtr | Jul 26, 2023 11:38:38 AM
William delzell. --
Insisting that you're to the left of Biden is not doing a lot to burnish your reputation for balance, but free speech is a great thing. And could you quote Desantis, because I don't think he ever said what you claim he did.
Posted by: Bill Otis | Jul 26, 2023 12:58:09 PM
"De Santis's crazy assertion that slavery was beneficial to its victims is like saying that the Nazi Holocaust was beneficial to its Jewish victims by leading to the creation of Israel."
Debunked. I don't think it unreasonable to point out that slaves were used for all sorts of trades. And that's one tiny little sentence any way, so you're engaged in mole-hill mountain building. And slaves with skills, in all times, had a better life than those without.
Why not take on some of the sillier things--hmmm, like COVID-19 came from a wet market.
Posted by: federalist | Jul 26, 2023 3:08:51 PM
https://redstate.com/jimthompson/2023/07/26/black-professor-who-helped-write-florida-history-standards-appeared-on-megyn-kellys-podcast-and-destroyed-the-lefts-lies-with-facts-n782414
This is what Delezell is talking about.
Posted by: federalist | Jul 26, 2023 5:38:30 PM
