CLICK THE ABOVE LINKS TO
MAKE AN ONLINE CONTRIBUTION TO THE CCADP
Like our site ? Donate
$1 or more... Every little bit adds up to help support our important
work !
EXECUTED AUGUST 5, 2004
Age 74, the oldest person executed in
the U.S. since 1941.
James Hubbard
Alabama Death Row
"...23 long years on a charge of
murder I did not commit. There was no
eyewitnesses, nowhere, NO PROOF that
I committed the crime..."
SAMPLE LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR ON BEHALF OF JAMES HUBBARD :
Governor Riley, I am writing to ask you to stop your state's execution
of James Hubbard. Mr. Hubbard is scheduled to die next Thursday, 8/5/2003,
for the 1977 death of his girlfriend, Lillian Montgomery.
Mr. Hubbard is 74 four years old and debilitated by prostate and colon
cancer. He has spent 27 years on death row convicted of a crime to
which there was no eyewitness. His alcoholism, borderline mental retardation,
and difficult life were never presented in mitigation of his behavior by
his clearly inadequate counsel. Further, your state denied his attorneys
a 30-day extension of sentencing they requested to review more than 1000
pages of medical records for Mr. Hubbard. Governor Riley, no good purpose
can be served by killing James Hubbard; you must halt this execution!
Former Attorney General of the United States Janet Reno, as well as myriads
of scholars, can find no evidence that the death penalty deters capital crimes.
In fact, the warden of the famous Sing Sing prison believes that the death
penalty exacerbates the violence in his facility by setting an example of
cold-blooded killing. Recent studies show that the largest increase in capital
crimes is in Texas, the state which executes the most people. As for vengeance,
that is the Lord's, not the government's.
Please, Governor Riley, use your discretion to stop this killing of James
Hubbard. If this execution goes forward, look around this country
for the black armbands worn, and the church bells tolled, in protest
of this injustice.
Thank you.
James Hubbard has been on Alabama death
row since 1977.
URGENT ACTION
APPEAL - AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
16 July 2004 UA 225/04
Death penalty
USA (Alabama) James Barney Hubbard (m), aged
74
James Hubbard, white, is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on 5 August
2004. He was sentenced to death in
1977 for the murder of Lillian Montgomery.
According to the court record, Lillian Montgomery was killed at her
home in Tuscaloosa on the morning of 10 January 1977, dying as a result
of three gunshot wounds to the head, face and shoulder. James Hubbard,
who had moved in with Lillian Montgomery following his release from prison
after serving 20 years on a second-degree murder conviction, rang the police
after the shooting. When they arrived he told them that the victim had shot
herself. At the police station, after the police gave him some whisky
when he asked for a drink "to steady his nerves" (he had already been drinking),
James Hubbard signed a statement, repeating his earlier claim that Lillian
Montgomery had committed suicide.
James Hubbard was tried in September 1977 and sentenced to death. After
Alabama's death penalty statute was found unconstitutional by the US Supreme
Court in 1980, Hubbard was granted a new trial. He was again sentenced
to death in April 1982.
His appeals have been unsuccessful, including on the claim that his
statement to the police had been involuntary on account of his alcoholism
and low intelligence. His IQ has been assessed at 80, in the borderline
mental retardation range. On 2 July 2004, Indiana Governor Joseph Kernan
commuted Darnell Williams's death sentence shortly before he was due to
be executed. Governor Kernan noted the 2002 US Supreme Court decision,
Atkins v Virginia, outlawing the use of the death penalty for those who
have mental retardation. The Governor wrote: "Williams's IQ has been measured
at 78 and 81, and he attended special education classes throughout his schooling.
The usual 'cut-off' for mental retardation is IQ of 70-75, and
Williams falls above that level... The courts have set a clear legal
standard, but it remains problematic to confidently place the solemn decision
of life or death on a few percentage points on either side of a line. Williams's
mental status weighs as a factor in the clemency process."
James Hubbard is reported to have prostate and colon cancer. He has
been on death row for a quarter of a century and is now 74 years old. If
executed, he would be the oldest person to be put to death in the USA since
it resumed executions in 1977.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, regardless
of the gravity of the crime, the guilt or innocence of the condemned, or
the method used to kill the prisoner. The death penalty is an affront to
human dignity and a symptom of a culture of violence, and consumes resources
that could otherwise be used towards constructive strategies to combat
violent crime and to offer assistance to its victims and their families.
In addition, the US capital justice system is marked by arbitrariness,
discrimination and error.
Today 117 countries are abolitionist in law or practice. In contrast,
there have been 918 executions in the USA since it resumed executions in
1977, more than 750 of them since 1990. Alabama accounts for 28 of
these executions. There have been 33 executions in the USA this year.
RECOMMENDED ACTION
Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Lillian Montgomery
and for the suffering that her death will have caused;
- opposing the execution of James Hubbard;
- noting his low IQ level, his ill-health and the fact that he is an
elderly man;
- urging the Governor to grant clemency.
APPEALS TO:
Governor Bob Riley
State Capitol
600 Dexter Avenue
Montgomery, Alabama 36130
USA
Fax: 1 334 353 0004
Email: http://www.governor.state.al.us/contact/contact_form.aspx
Salutation: Dear Governor
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes
and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact
information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help
with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
PO Box 1270
Nederland CO 80466-1270
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 303 258 1170
Fax: 303 258 7881
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
U.S.
Supreme Court, Riley refuse to stop execution
Dressed in a white prison uniform, strapped to a gurney with his arms outstretched,
almost angelic, a silver-haired James Barney Hubbard died
peacefully by lethal injection Thursday.
At 6:36 p.m., the 74-year-old from Bibb County became the oldest person
ever to be executed in the state of Alabama, and the oldest in the United
States since 1976, the year the death penalty was reinstated.
Outside Holman Correctional Facility, three women from a local Roman Catholic
Church, one a nun named Sister Lillian, protested the execution
with candles.
Hubbard, who had been on death row for more than 26 years for the 1977
slaying of Lillian Montgomery of Tuscaloosa, nodded that he understood
when Warden Grantt Culliver read the death order at 6:13 p.m. The 1st drug
was administered through IVs in both arms at 6:17 p.m.
Hubbard yawned twice and fell asleep with his mouth slightly open.
"I tell you what, I would have liked to have seen the electric chair in
use today, or maybe even a firing squad," said Jimmy Montgomery, the
66-year-old son of Lillian Montgomery.
"He looked like he died too peacefully to me. I would have liked to have
seen him suffer a little more, the way mama did. That would have given me
a bit more satisfaction. But I am glad to see this part of our life end."
Earlier in the day, shortly after Hubbard was served his last meal the
U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for Hubbard by a 5-4 vote.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, who under state law has the power to grant reprieves
and commutations, said later that he had no intention of
interfering with the execution.
It is a very sad day," said Alan D. Rose, Hubbard's attorney. The state
of Alabama has taken the life of a 74-year-old man. The U.S. Supreme Court
did not do its job today. It could have saved a sick, frail man's life.
It makes no sense."
Through the execution, Montgomery, his wife, Ruth, and sister Jeanette
Parrott held hands in a witness room opposite of the one that held
Hubbard's daughter, Barbara McKinney, attorney and spiritual adviser.
"We love each other," said Parrott, who was 1 of 6 Montgomery family members
who made the trip to Atmore on Thursday. We were holding each
other because we were there for each other."
Hubbard showed no emotion, and when asked if he had any last words, he
shook his head and said, "No."
Looking sickly and so pale the tattoo on his right arm and blue veins in
his head stood out, he looked at McKinney for about 30 seconds before
closing his eyes and waiting for the lethal injection process to begin.
Steve Hayes, executive assistant for Alabama's Department of Corrections,
said McKinney is claiming Hubbard's body. It is not known where he will
be
buried.
His daughter stood by his side in these last days," Rose said. "She did
her job."
Hubbard was convicted twice in Montgomery's death. In June 1980, an execution
date was set for July 11, 1980, but a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court declared
Alabama's death penalty law unconstitutional. Hubbard was retried and sentenced
to death at the retrial.
His 1st conviction happened within 20 years of a 2nd-degree murder conviction
in the 1957 death of David Dockery in Tuscaloosa County. He was
released on the state's good time incentive act" in 1976. Less than a year
later, he shot 62-year-old Lillian Montgomery in the shoulder, head and
face. She was left to die alone on the kitchen floor of her apartment on
U.S. Highway 82, about 3 miles south of Tuscaloosa.
"I know it was tough on Hubbard's daughter to watch her daddy die," Jimmy
Montgomery said. "But he never showed any remorse. I was looking for him
to say something to us today. I thought hed say he was sorry for all the
pain he caused our family. You know, the shot to my mother's head was so
bad it blew her false teeth down her throat.
"She didn't deserve to die like that."
Hubbard has maintained his innocence throughout his tenure on death row.
In a letter he wrote to Lillian Montgomery's granddaughter, Janet Voss,
he
said that he knew God and that he loved her grandmother very much.
"I don't see how you kill somebody you love," Voss said Thursday. He took
something precious from me."
For years, Hubbard had been on several medications, including pain relievers
and antidepressants. He claimed to prison medical personnel and
a psychologist that he was in constant pain from various stomach and prostrate
problems throughout his tenure on death row and that he couldnt sleep well.
Hubbard, raised in a farm family, grew up in Bibb County and in Tuscaloosa.
He worked as a carpenter in Tuscaloosa and in Texas before he
was convicted of murder.
On Wednesday and Thursday, he had about 15 visitors. He had 4 visitors
from the Kairos Organization, a spiritual group.
Hubbard leaves behind 2 grown children. McKinney, 53, used to visit him
regularly. She has 6 children, 4 of them adopted. Hubbard also has a son,
John, who has 2 children.
David Elliot, the communications director of the National Coalition Against
the Death Penalty, said Hubbard is the oldest person executed in
the U.S. since 1941. In that year, Colorado executed James Stephens, who
was believed to be 76 years old.
Elliot said the next oldest person executed since 1976 was Anthony Antone.
Antone, who was executed in Florida in 1984 at the age of 66.
"It took a while for this to happen -- 26 years, but I never did give up,"
Jimmy Montgomery said. "I'm glad the state came through for our family.
There's no way I wanted to walk the streets of Tuscaloosa and see him walk
by me. He can't hurt anyone else now."
(source: Tuscaloosa News)
The CCADP offers free webpages to over 500 Death Row Prisoners
Contact us for more information.
"The Eyes Of The World Are Watching Now"
This page was
last updated August 6, 2004
Canadian Coalition
Against the Death Penalty
This page is maintained
and updated by Dave Parkinson and Tracy Lamourie in Toronto, Canada