State of Alabama executes James Edward Barber

After months of delays, Alabama is once again executing convicted murderers for their crimes. After the U.S. Supreme Court legally cleared the execution of James Edward Barber to move forward, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey told Corrections Commissioner John Hamm that she would not exercise her clemency powers in this case and then directed him to proceed with Mr. Barber’s lawfully imposed death sentence for the 2001 brutal beating of seventy-five-year-old Dorothy Epps. That execution was carried out by lethal injection early Friday morning.

“Tonight, the justice that James Barber managed to avoid for more than two decades has finally been served,” said Gov. Ivey. “In 2001, 75-year-old Dorothy Epps desperately fought for her life as Mr. Barber brutally and gruesomely beat her to death in her own home. The facts are clear: Mr. Barber confessed to his guilt, and the jury has spoken. His litany of appeals to delay justice finally came to an end, and Mr. Barber has answered for his horrendous crime. In Alabama, we will always work to enforce the law and uphold justice.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement this morning after the execution of James Edward Barber at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama.

“Justice has been served,” Marshall said. “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.”

“I ask the people of Alabama to join me in praying for the victim’s family and friends, that they might now be able to find some sense of peace and closure,” said Marshall.

The Attorney General cleared the execution to commence at 1:34 a.m. James Barber’s time of death was 1:56 a.m.

On Sunday, May 20, 2001, James Barber brutally murdered Dorothy Epps at her home in Harvest, Alabama, taking her life so that he could steal her purse.

Dorothy Epps was home alone on the night of her murder. Mrs. Epps knew and had a friendly relationship with James Barber, who in the past had dated her daughter and had been hired to do repair work on her house. When Barber knocked on Mrs. Epps’s door, she probably invited him inside, having no reason to suspect his malevolent intent.

According to prosecutors, after entering her home, “Barber viciously and mercilessly attacked Mrs. Epps,” a 75-year-old woman who weighed 100 pounds, striking her in the face and beating her to death with his fists and a claw hammer.

Dorothy Epps suffered multiple skull fractures, head lacerations, fractured ribs, injuries to her neck, mouth, and eye, and bleeding over her brain. She also suffered numerous defensive wounds, establishing that she was facing Barber at times, was conscious and aware of what was happening, and tried to fend off his blows with her bare hands.

Prosecutors say that after murdering Mrs. Epps, Barber grabbed her purse and ran from the scene. Barber left the house a bloody mess. Barber’s bloody footprints were found on Mrs. Epps’s body, and his bloody handprint was left on a countertop.

Barber was arrested and voluntarily confessed to the murder of Dorothy Epps, providing police with an elaborate account of his crimes. He admitted that “the crime was senseless and stupid” and that he deserved “to be charged and put to death” for committing it.

At trial, where overwhelming evidence of his guilt was presented—including his own video-recorded confession—Barber was convicted of capital murder by a jury of his peers and sentenced to death.

Barber’s execution was opposed by liberal groups who oppose the death penalty – even though the death penalty has been among the penalties for murder for thousands of years of human history across numerous civilizations.

Ivey temporarily halted executions late last year after workers at the Department of Corrections botched two lethal injection executions because of difficulties inserting IVs into the condemned men’s veins. The Governor authorized the executions to resume in February.

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