Alabama gov: Execution set despite wishes of victim’s family

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s governor mentioned Wednesday that she has determined the state will proceed later this week with a plan to execute a person convicted of killing his former girlfriend a long time in the past, overriding a plea from the sufferer’s household to spare the person’s life.

Gov. Kay Ivey informed reporters she received’t name off the scheduled deadly injection of Joe Nathan James Jr. at a south Alabama jail on Thursday night. The inmate was convicted and sentenced to die for the 1994 capturing demise of 26-year-old Religion Corridor, in Birmingham.

Corridor’s daughters, who had been simply 3 and 6 when their mom was killed, had urged together with Corridor’s brother that officers change the sentence to life in jail with out parole. However Alabama Lawyer Common Steve Marshall urged Ivey to let execution plans proceed and guarantee “justice is finished.”

In making public her resolution Wednesday morning, Ivey mentioned, “My employees and I’ve researched all of the data and all of the info and there’s no cause to vary the process or modify the end result. The execution will go ahead.”

Prosecutors mentioned James briefly dated Corridor, however that he had turn into obsessed after she ended their relationship, stalking and harassing her for months earlier than killing her. On Aug. 15, 1994, he compelled his approach inside an residence, pulled a gun from his waistband and shot her 3 times, they mentioned.

Within the weeks main as much as the scheduled execution date, Corridor’s daughters and brother had mentioned they might somewhat James serve a life sentence in jail somewhat than be put to demise.

“I do know it could sound loopy. Like, you actually need this man to dwell? However … I simply really feel like we are able to’t play God. We are able to’t take a life. And it’s not going to carry my mother again,” Terryln Corridor had informed The Related Press in a latest phone interview.

State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, who was a good friend of Corridor’s, despatched a letter to the governor relaying the household’s request.

“They’re merely saying our want because the household is for him to die within the penal system of the Alabama correctional facility. That’s how we would like him to undergo and we wish to see that struggling for the remainder of our lives,” Givan mentioned Wednesday.

Givan mentioned the case was uncommon in that the sufferer’s household had requested for clemency. Although James “brutally and senselessly killed” the mom of two just because she rejected him, Givan mentioned the household’s needs ought to carry weight.

“This can be a robust one,” mentioned Givan, who remembered Corridor as a sort and devoted mom.

“She was simply the sweetest particular person you ever wished to satisfy,” Givan mentioned.

In the meantime, James has acted as his personal legal professional in a bid to halt Thursday’s execution process, submitting handwritten lawsuits and requests for a keep.

He has claimed his attorneys had been ineffective and that jail officers didn’t clarify what was at stake when it gave inmates a kind by which they might choose nitrogen hypoxia as their most popular execution technique. Alabama has permitted nitrogen hypoxia as an execution means however hasn’t developed a system for its use or scheduled any executions by that technique.