James Barber, a 54-year-old man who worked odd jobs, was convicted in 2003 of murdering a woman in her late 70s by hitting her with a hammer during a robbery. He is expected to receive the death penalty by lethal injection at the Atmore prison in Alabama between 05:01 and 11:00 GMT on Friday.
Last year, the Republican governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, temporarily suspended executions due to various problems with lethal injections. In one case, Joe James Jr.’s execution in July 2022 took more than three hours due to problems with his IV drip. Two other execution attempts also had to be halted due to problems with the setup of the intravenous drips.
James Barber will be the first convict to be executed in Alabama since procedures were revised, leading to the lifting of the moratorium in February of this year. His lawyers have filed several appeals to stay the execution, citing previous rulings on executions carried out in Alabama.
Elsewhere in Oklahoma, 51-year-old Jemaine Cannon is also scheduled to be executed on Thursday for the murder of a 20-year-old woman in 1995. Her death sentence will be carried out by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at 15:00 GMT.
So far in 2023, there have been 13 executions in the United States, all by lethal injection.