Despite the victim’s family’s requests for him to be spared, the governor of Alabama has opted to move through with plans for the execution of a man who killed his girlfriend decades ago.
Nearly 30 years ago in Birmingham, Faith Hall, then 26 years old, was tragically shot by her ex-boyfriend Joe Nathan James Jr. Currently, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has stated that she would not postpone James Jr.’s scheduled lethal injection execution on Thursday night at a jail in south Alabama.
He was found guilty and handed the death penalty for the murder of Hall, his ex-girlfriend.
Together with Hall’s brother, Hall’s children—who were just three and six at the time of her death—have pleaded with the authorities to amend the murderer’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole and spare their mother’s life.
To guarantee that “justice is done,” Alabama’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, has encouraged the governor to move forward with the execution preparations.
According to reports, James Jr., 49, will get a fatal injection on Thursday night unless a court or the governor steps in.
On Thursday, Joe Nathan James Jr. will be executed in Alabama. He was sentenced to death for killing a woman in Birmingham in 1999. @AP reports the victim's family oppose the execution. Today I spoke with Governor Kay Ivey, who says the execution will go on as scheduled. pic.twitter.com/G5dgNYRQfD
— Emily Moessner (@EmilyMoessner) July 27, 2022
One of the two daughters of Hall, Terryln Hall told Associated Press that “we thought about it and prayed about it, and we found it in ourselves to forgive him for what he did. We really wish there was something that we could do to stop it.”
She said: “I know it may sound crazy. Like, you really want this man to live? But … I just feel like we can’t play God. We can’t take a life. And it’s not going to bring my mom back.”
Meanwhile, the governor said on Wednesday that “my staff and I have researched all the records and all the facts and there’s no reason to change the procedure or modify the outcome. The execution will go forward”.
In fact, the Hall family has relayed the request for clemency for James Jr through State representative Juandalynn Givan. “They are simply saying our wish as the family is for him to die in the penal system of the Alabama correctional facility. That’s how we want him to suffer and we want to see that suffering for the rest of our lives,” Mr Givan said on Wednesday.
the source utilized while creating the news: https://www.independent.co.uk
