The governor’s office set a time frame for the execution of James Barber that will begin at midnight on July 20 and expire at 6 a.m. on July 21. The 30-hour window is designed to give the state prison system more time after two most recent executions were called off because of trouble with intravenous lines. The DOC said that it is not ready to carry out executions by nitrogen hypoxia despite a statement by the attorney general’s office suggesting the untested method could be used to put an inmate to death next month.
You can find the Execution Talking Points at: https://www.phadp.org/execution-alert-james-barber/. We thank the individuals, including Cantor Mike Zoosman from L’chaim, Jews Against the Death Penalty for their daily weekday calls to the Governor’s office protesting the upcoming execution. Might you join them? PHONE 1-334-242-7100 and please sign the Death Penalty Action petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-james-barber-in-alabama/
PHADP Advisory Board Member Judy Collins is working with others at the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, producing an entire service for Sunday, July 9th, 10 CT, featuring “Who? For Whom? WhUUm?”--a Readers Theater presentation of Elizabeth Bruenig’s Atlantic article,“What It Means to Forgive the Unforgivable.” By clicking https://auuf.org/watch, people can view the live streamed service and later view the presentation as saved in the video archives. Sponsor of the service, AUUF's Social Action Committee(SAC), invites interested people to consider hosting viewings and discussion at house gatherings, civic club or church meetings. This program is part of AUUF's "SAC" having adopted https://forwhomthebellstoll.org/ project which works to abolish all executions.
Alabama People of Faith Coalition organized by Sam Heath of EJUSA, has been meeting regularly by zoom and the following are the two issues they are focusing on at the moment: ( their next meeting is July 6th at 10.00 a.m. central time}
1} We need a location (building) in Montgomery for a vigil for Jimi Barber the week of July 10. This would be a time to pray as well as a time to raise awareness for the public and to urge Governor Ivey to act. Once we have a location, the rest of the planning can begin.
2) Jimi Barber's legal team and our coalition both have expressed that an op-ed from people of faith could have an effect on Governor Ivey. We need people who are willing to help author this. Sam has an outline ready and can send it to those interested in helping.
We thank all who are working so hard and diligently to stop all killing in Alabama!
As always in closing, we thank all our generous donors who either gave by going to our website and using the “donate” button or who gave directly. Thank you also to all who took the time to read our notes, commented, liked and shared them on Facebook. And if you would like to order our book Ghosts Over the Boiler you can do so at Amazon.com.
Esther
