American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama
Alabama Prison Project
Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty
Groups condemn the execution of James B. Hubbard
Aug. 5, 2004
James Barney Hubbard was executed in the name of the citizens of the state of Alabama today, Aug. 5, 2004, for the murder of Lillian Montgomery. Our thoughts go out to the families of both Mrs. Montgomery and Mr. Hubbard.
Mr. Hubbard was 74 years old and was terminally ill as the result of prostate and colon cancer, hepatitis A, B and C. He spent 27 years on Alabama’s death row; he did not present a danger to society. There was evidence that Mr. Hubbard was also borderline mentally retarded and suffered from dementia, calling into question whether he was competent to be executed as is required under the law.
In Ford v. Wainwright, decided in 1986, the Supreme Court held that the execution of the mentally ill was unconstitutional and that this prohibition was firmly rooted in law. Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote, “Whether its aim be to protect the condemned from fear and pain without comfort of understanding, or to protect the dignity of society itself from the barbarity of exacting mindless vengeance, the restriction finds enforcement in the Eighth Amendment.”
We will never know if Mr. Hubbard was incompetent to be executed. When the state filed its motion to set an execution date for Mr. Hubbard, his attorney requested that his prison medical records be turned over so that an appropriate response could be filed with the court. The state took roughly three months to comply with that request, three months of the time allotted for Mr. Hubbard to respond to the state’s motion to end his life. Mr. Hubbard’s volunteer attorney had to pay the state $567.05 for copies of the medical records. When the attorney requested an extension from the Alabama Supreme Court so that he could examine the 1091 pages provided to him, that request was denied.
Our organizations believe that the death penalty is a violation of our Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and should be abolished. In light of the issues that still and will forever remain concerning Mr. Hubbard’s competence to be executed, it is essential that the state of Alabama declare a moratorium on executions in the interest of justice.
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