Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 5.10.23
An execution warrant has been issued for Alabama Death Row inmate James Barber. It’s the first execution set since the state botched and therefore failed to carry out two planned executions last fall, and the first with new rules in place allowing the governor to choose the execution date which shall not begin less than 30 days after the May 3rd order. You can find the Talking Points at: http://www.phadp.org/?q=alerts
The family of Joe Nathan James, Jr. has filed a lawsuit against Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Attorney General Steve Marshall, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm and others over his execution which was horribly botched. We appreciate the various issues raised iin the lawsuit especially that ““ADOC’s attempts to remedy the flaws in the execution procedures are an implied admission that the procedures in place at the time of Mr. James’ execution were deficient, that the ‘medical personnel’ were not sufficiently trained or prepared, and that the equipment used was inadequate,” And also: “that Alabama officials "unconstitutionally subjected Mr. James to excessive pain during his prolonged execution and deprived him of the right to be conscious and speak his final words before the administration of the lethal drugs."
“Alabama explores new death penalty methods after botched executions - NBC News Alabama is exploring new methods of the death penalty after a series of botched executions for death row inmates. NBC's Dasha Burns reports”. We appreciated being able to contribute to this podcast.. Although we were obviously not present at the botched execution attempts we certainly were witnesses of the after effects on our brothers who had been put through hell.
A frequent topic of discussion for us is how to network, how to reach out to get the word out to more people. These days because of Ghosts Over the Boiler we are aware that we are reaching more people than ever even though, as is true of the Weekly Reports, we will never know just how many. And so this message from a supporter in response to the Weekly Report really made our day:” I am interested in approaching my church to “DO SOMEthing” and maybe a letter like this would be a place to start. Would that be okay if I send a copy of your letter to my church? It is St. Joseph’s Episcopal church in Mentone AL “ Definitely more than okay, wonderful” was our answer.
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
