Thank God for Alabama. I know I will sleep easier now that they have taken care of the great plastic phallus menace, and I think we can all sleep a bit easier now that this has been taken care of:
A 74-year-old murderer became the oldest U.S. inmate put to death in decades after courts and the governor refused to stop his execution.
James Barney Hubbard died by injection Thursday at Holman Prison near Atmore.
“The legal execution of James B. Hubbard was carried out according to the laws of the State of Alabama,” Corrections Department spokesman Steve Hayes told CBS Radio News. “His official time of death is 6:36 p.m. Central Time.”
I am against the death penalty in general, but there is no doubt this man was aworthy candidate. Regardless, it seems that someone else had already given Hubbard the death penalty:
He was recently diagnosed with dementia; a psychologist concluded his condition may cause confusion and interfere with his ability to understand legal procedures, according to papers his lawyers filed in the appeals court.
Hubbard also claims he is suffering from hepatitis, diverticulitis, hypertension and acute back pain.
The man had one foot in the grave, the other on a banana peel, and Alabama probably spent a hundred thousand dollars in the legal fight to execute him. Oh well.
At any rate, I am sure glad Alabama is leading the way in keeping us all safe. Now, if they could just kindly ask their United States Senator to keep his damned mouth shut.
phil
He was 47 years old when convicted, filed appeal after appeal for 27 years, and then he’s too old? Reminds me of the kid who killed his parents, then asked the court for mercy because he was an orphan.
Mark
Hell, he was dying anyway. Think of it as a mercy killing.
norbizness
$100,000 for the appeals? I would guess more like millions… even normal appeals cost more than a lifetime of imprisonment, and this series of appeals spanned four decades.
Plus, Phil, the guy had an IQ of 80. I doubt his jailhouse lawyering kept the system in gridlock for that long.
Dean
Isn’t that Uncle Juni?
John
Hee hee, those Bama boys done it again, a’int they? Seems like they wanted to strap some 74 year-old, half-dead fart to the table.
James Barney Hubbard was 47 when he was paroled after serving a few years in Alabama state prison for (what was it now? Oh yeah) …murder. Let’s make sure we all got that: Hubbard murdered somebody, went to prison, got paroled, and then murdered a new victim. What the hell, can’t those Alabama folks take a joke?
Hubbard was a new parolee, and came upon Ms. Montgomery’s little general store. He gave her his hard-luck, hard-life story, and she gave him a hand, like she’d done with other ex-cons. She gave him food, clothes, a place to stay and a job. Such a mean, vicious woman needs to be killed, don’t you think? Hubbard thought so: he blew her brains out.
Ol’ Harvey had a sense of humor, At trial he claimed she committed suicide whule they were having a nice friendly drink. Pretty good story, huh? The juries (yeah, appeals and all ensured there was more than one trial) had no such sense of humor. Can you believe the bastards thought he deserved to die? Rednecks.
And then the usual social conscience groups came to Hubbard’s aid. You know the ones. They have a finer, higher sense of justice amd morality than people in a backwoods place like Alabama, Hell, they read the New York Times, for chrisskes.
But Hubbard’s real knee-slapper came in his appeals. His mouthpieces spent 27 years and the State’s own money arguing that his life was worth more than that old hag’s. And then, dang it, if they didn’t drag it out until he was 74. Wheeee doggies.
And pretty funny how that poor, sick, demented old man, who hardly was alive he was so sick, they said, fought like a demon to hold on to such a “miserable” life. What characters.
I’m tired of this. Look. This story is not about dildoes, or an idiot blabbermouth senator, or even a demagogic State Chief Justice who wanted to become a U.S. Senator by concocting some bullshit argument about how the federal government was crushing his First Amendment rights by making him take a 2 1/2-ton rock outr of the middle of the State Supreme Court. But it’s a lot more fun if we play the bloodthirsty-rednecks-execute-sick-old-man angle, isn’t it. I’m sure Ms. Montgomery and her family think so.
M. Scott Eiland
Quite a tragedy–that the vicious little bastard wasn’t nuked to ashes back in–say–1980, that is.
Ken Hahn
Even if everything said about this man were true, if his appeal was upheld it would be used by every inmate on death row for another time wasting appeals. twenty-two year olds would claim senility if would buy them one extra day.
As to the expense, Hubbard could have lived a long time, costing the taxpayers hugh sums to keep him alive. His lawyers have grown rich at taxpayer expense. Judges should have the right to declare an appeal baseless and demand the lawyer reimburse the State for its expenses. Instead they drag out a case 27 years and earn more than the average American will in his lifetime.