ALA. MOVES TO RESUME EXECUTIONS
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said Friday that the state is ready to resume executions and “obtain justice” for victims’ families after lethal injections were paused for three months for an internal review of the state’s death penalty procedures.
The governor in November directed the state prison system to undertake a “topto-bottom” review of death penalty procedures after the state was forced to cancel three lethal injections because of problems with intravenous lines. Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told Ivey in a letter shared with news outlets that his staff is ready to resume executions after making internal changes related to staffing and equipment. However, critics argued that the review should have been conducted by an outside group instead of the state agency “responsible for botching multiple executions.”
The governor’s office did not release a detailed report on the review’s finding, but shared the letter from the head of the prison system. Hamm said the prison system is adding to its pool of medical professionals, ordered new equipment and has conducted rehearsals. He also noted changes that will give the execution team more time to complete its duties. The Alabama Supreme Court, at Ivey’s request, last month issued a ruling that gives the state more time to carry out a death sentence by allowing the warrants that authorize executions to last for longer than 24 hours.
In a Friday letter to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, Ivey wrote that it is “time to resume our duty in carrying out lawful death sentences.” Ivey had asked Marshall to stop seeking execution dates until the review was complete.
Marshall on Friday filed a motion with the Alabama Supreme Court seeking an execution date for James Barber, who was sentenced to death for the 2001 beating death of 75-year-old Dorothy Epps. Marshall said his office would be “seeking death warrants for other murderers in short order.”
“In Alabama, we recognize that there are crimes so heinous, atrocious and cruel that the only just punishment is death,” Marshall said.