A 64-year-old death row inmate for murder was executed by lethal injection in Alabama on Friday, the first in the state in a string of botched executions last year, officials said.
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James Barber was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. (0656 GMT) Friday at Holman Jail in Atmore, Alabama, Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.
He was found guilty in 2003 in Alabama of beating 75-year-old Dorothy Epps to death with a hammer in a 2001 robbery.
Alabama’s governor last year imposed a temporary moratorium on executions after problems with lethal injections.
In one such case — the July 2022 execution of Joe James Jr. — it took more than three hours to set up an IV.
Two other execution attempts had to be abandoned due to problems placing these IVs.
Barber was the first prisoner to be executed in Alabama since the moratorium on executions was lifted after a review of the trial ended in February.
Another 51-year-old inmate, Jemaine Cannon, who was sentenced to death for the murder of a woman nearly 30 years ago, was also executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on Thursday.