American prisoner hanged in Alabama

A 64-year-old inmate sentenced to death for murder was executed by lethal injection in Alabama on Friday, officials said, the US state’s first since a series of executions last year.

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James Barber was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. (0656 GMT) Friday at Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama, state Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.

He beat 75-year-old Dorothy Epps to death in Alabama in 2003 with a hammer during a 2001 robbery.

Alabama’s governor imposed a temporary moratorium on executions last year after problems with lethal injection.

In one such case — the July 2022 execution of Joe James Jr. — it took more than three hours to set up an IV trip.

Two other execution attempts were aborted due to complications in placing these injections.

After the trial concluded in February, Barber was the first inmate sentenced to death in Alabama since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted.

In the state of Oklahoma, another 51-year-old inmate, Jemaine Cannon, who was sentenced to death for killing a woman nearly 30 years ago, was also executed by lethal injection on Thursday.