Governor Kay Ivey on Monday asked Attorney General Steve Marshall to withdraw the State’s two pending motions to set execution dates in the cases of Alan Eugene Miller and James Edward Barber, the only two death row inmates with such motions currently pending before the Alabama Supreme Court. This follows Thursday’s botched attempt to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith and previous troubling executions.
Ivey has ordered Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm to undertake a top-to-bottom review of the State’s execution process and how to ensure the State can successfully deliver justice going forward.
“For the sake of the victims and their families, we’ve got to get this right,” Ivey said. “I don’t buy for a second the narrative being pushed by activists that these issues are the fault of the folks at Corrections or anyone in law enforcement, for that matter. I believe that legal tactics and criminals hijacking the system are at play here.”
“I will commit all necessary support and resources to the Department to ensure those guilty of perpetrating the most heinous crimes in our society receive their just punishment,” Ivey continued. “I simply cannot, in good conscience, bring another victim’s family to Holman looking for justice and closure until I am confident that we can carry out the legal sentence.”
The governor also requests that the attorney general not seek additional execution dates for any other death row inmates until the top-to-bottom review is complete. Ivey said that she appreciates the hard work of AG Marshall and his team to pursue justice in these cases and looks forward to receiving the input of his office, as appropriate, as the review moves forward.
Commissioner Hamm agreed with Ivey.
“I agree with Governor Ivey that we have to get this right for the victims’ sake,” Hamm said. “Everything is on the table – from our legal strategy in dealing with last-minute appeals, to how we train and prepare, to the order and timing of events on execution day, to the personnel and equipment involved. The Alabama Department of Corrections is fully committed to this effort and confident that we can get this done right.”
Miller gunned down Lee Holdbrooks, age 32, Scott Yancy, age 28, and Terry Jarvis, age 39, in a workplace-related shooting in Shelby County on July 31, 2000.
Barber, a handyman, robbed and killed elderly neighbor Dorothy Epps, age 75, in Harvest in Madison County in 2001.
Lethal injection is the preferred method of execution because it is supposedly more humane than the electric chair, firing squad, gas chamber, hanging, or beheading, but Smith was allegedly strapped to a gurney for four hours Thursday night while Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) employees tried in vain to find a blood vein so that the State could kill him before ADOC finally gave up.
U.S District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. on Friday granted a request from Smith’s lawyers to visit with Smith and take photographs of his body. Huffaker also ordered the State to preserve notes and other materials related to what happened in the botched execution. This was the third failed execution attempt by the State of Alabama since 2018.
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