“The letter was very vague, that Commissioner Hamm sent,” Mike Nicholson with Alabama Arise said. “It was very disappointing honestly. He’s going to add to the pool of available medical personnel for executions, but did not explain why that is needed.”said he wants more transparency from the ADOC, to see why new equipment and more staff is needed. He said it feels like this review was rushed.
“I would love to see a thorough review report that lays out why more equipment is needed,” Nicholson said. “Why more medical staff is needed, but the fact that it took three months and was internal, leaves me pretty skeptical that we won’t get that information.” ADOC officials said they have been doing rehearsal executions, but Nicholson said he thinks the investigation should have been done by an external group.
“This was an opportunity for us, as a state, to really take a break and take a step back,” he said.” We need to say ‘why are we executing people? Is the way we are sentencing people to death appropriate, and is the way we are putting people to death appropriate. If we are intent on executing people, why is our priority doing it quickly and not humanely?’”
Now that executions can resume, Attorney General Steve Marshall has already filed a motion with the Alabama Supreme Court to set an execution date for James Barber. Barber has been on death row since 2004 for the fatal beating of a 75-year-old woman. Marshall said his office “will be seeking death warrants for other murderers in short order.”