AG Marshall seeks death warrant for James Barber as Ivey greenlights executions

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he is seeking an execution date for James Edward Barber hours after Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday wrote that the state's "top-to-bottom review" of its capital punishment process is complete.

The findings of the review have not been made public, but Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm announced that the department has made several changes to its execution process, including purchasing new equipment and increasing the number of personnel on hand for carrying out executions.

Barber, 63, was convicted of murder during a first-degree robbery in 2003 for the killing of Dorothy Epps in north Alabama in 2002. Barber confessed to killing 75-year-old Epps at her home in Harvest and leaving with her purse.

Ivey paused executions in the state for a review on Nov. 21 after ADOC failed numerous times to carry out executions, with particular trouble establishing venous access in those to be lethally injected. The department consecutively failed to carry out the executions of Alan Miller and Kenneth Smith after failing to set an IV for the injection, and it put Joe Nathan James Jr. to death after a three-hour delay at least partially spent trying to set an IV.

A day before Ivey announced that the review was over, more than 60 attorneys, advocates and critics of the state's prison system sent a letter to Ivey and Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm urging them to supplement the state's own investigation with one conducted by an independent body.

In his own letter to Ivey sent Friday, Hamm said that ADOC evaluated several aspects of how it carries out the death penalty, from its capital litigation strategy to how it trains the personnel who perform executions.

ADOC used its findings to increase the number of medical professionals on hand for executions and obtain new equipment for executions, as well as to make changes announced last year extending the validity of an execution warrant, Hamm said. He also said that ADOC personnel have carried out multiple rehearsals of its execution process in recent months and that ADOC will continue to update its rehearsal and training procedures.

More:AL Supreme Court gives governor power to set timeframe for executions

ADOC in an email declined to provide more information about the changes to its equipment or personnel for executions.

Hamm did not reveal the findings that led to the changes in procedure, unlike some other states. When Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee ordered an investigation of its state's execution process, he released its results, showing the state failed to follow its own rules. The attorneys and advocates who penned the letter to Ivey and Hamm said Tennessee's review should be a model for Alabama's.

More:Alabama is investigating its capital punishment process: What do other states do?

They wrote that the investigation should, among other things, answer questions about the level of training and experience of those carrying out executions; how their ongoing placement on the execution team is evaluated; who Alabama's procurer of lethal drugs is; and whether Alabama is compounding the drugs or purchasing them commercially manufactured.

They also recommended some corrective actions taken by Tennessee they felt Alabama should incorporate, including hiring a full-time employee or consultant with a pharmaceutical background to help the lethal injection process; hiring an employee or consultant with a medical background to provide scheduled training and guidance to the execution team; and establishing a team to review data prior to each execution to ensure there are no deviations from the protocol.

Ivey wrote to Marshall that the pause in executions was necessary to making sure that they are carried out without failure in the future.

"Far too many Alabama families have waited for far too long — often for decades — to obtain justice for the loss of a loved one and to obtain closure for themselves," Ivey wrote. "... Now it is time to resume our duty of carrying out lawful death sentences."

A spokesperson for Marshall said the AG's office will make an announcement this afternoon.

Hamm said last week that the state is "close" to finishing its protocol for carrying out executions by nitrogen hypoxia, an untested method of execution in which the condemned is made to breathe nitrogen gas until their death.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanMealins.

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This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: AG seeks death warrant for James Barber as Alabama executions resume