MONTGOMERY — Gov. Kay Ivey has set a time frame for the execution of James Barber, her office announced.
In a letter to Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections John Hamm, Ivey set a 30-hour time frame “beginning at 12:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 20 and expiring 6:00 a.m. on Friday, July 21, 2023.”
Barber will be the first person executed in Alabama since a hold was placed in late November after accusations of botched executions were made.
“The Supreme Court of Alabama has entered an order authorizing you to carry out inmate James Barber’s sentence of death for the capital murder of Dorothy Epps,” she wrote to Hamm. “According, to the Supreme Court’s order, the execution must occur within a time frame to be set by the governor to begin not less than 30 days from May 3, 2023, the date of the order.
“Accordingly, I hereby set set a thirty-hour time frame for the execution to occur beginning at 12:00 a.m. on Thursday, July, 20, 2023 and expiring at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, July 21, 2023.”
Ivey also said she doesn’t foresee granting Barber clemency.
“Although I have no current plans to grant clemency in this case, I retain my authority under the Constitution of the State of Alabama to grant a reprieve or commutation, if necessary, at any time before the execution is carried out,” she wrote
Barber was found guilty of beating and murdering 75-year-old Dorothy Epps of Harvest with a claw hammer and his bare hands in 2001.
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