DLNews Crime:

James Barber, 64, has been executed in Alabama.

Barber was sentenced to death in January 2003 for brutally beating 75-year-old Dottie Epps in her home with a claw hammer. The craftsman then robbed the grandmother.

Epps suffered multiple skull fractures, lacerations to the head, cerebral hemorrhage, and broken ribs. The judge who convicted Barber spoke of a cruel, heinous, and vicious crime.

At a 2012 court hearing, Barber said he smoked large amounts of crack, drank at least one case of beer, and took a handful of prescription painkillers before the crime.

He can hardly remember why he killed the 75-year-old. And: He was immediately "horrified" by himself after the fact.

In sentencing Barber, Assistant District Attorney Robert Broussard said: "If you look at the facts of the case, he beat an elderly lady to death with a claw hammer. If this is not the case for the death penalty, then there is no such thing.” The jury voted 11 in favor of the death penalty; there was only one dissenting vote.

The execution of the death penalty was then delayed because Barber's lawyers repeatedly appealed.

I'm sorry."

Barber's execution took place on Thursday evening (local time). According to prison officials, the killer refused breakfast and only ate snacks throughout the day.

Barber wanted stuffed hash browns, hearty scrambled eggs, spicy boiled sausage, and toast as the ultimate meal.

Before he was executed, the 64-year-old told his family he loved her and apologized to his victim's family: "I want to tell Ms Epps' family that I love them. I'm sorry about what happened," Barber said. "There are no words that can express my feelings."

Afterward, the condemned man said he wanted to tell the governor "and the people in this room that I forgive you for what you're about to do."

 It is the first execution in the US state of Alabama since November 2022. At that time, Governor Kay Ivey (78) paused the death penalty after two killings were stopped due to difficulties inserting the infusion tubes into the veins of the convicts. Jemaine Cannon, convicted of murder in 1995, was also executed by lethal injection Thursday night in Oklahoma.

It was the 15th execution of the death penalty in the United States this year. There were 18 executions in the US in 2022, 11 in 2021, and 17 in 2020. Since the late 1990s, the number of executions has tended to decline.