Man becomes oldest Death Row inmate executed
A 74-year-old murderer became the oldest US inmate put to death in decades after courts and the governor refused to stop his execution.
James Barney Hubbard died by injection at Holman Prison near Atmore, Alabama.
Hubbard was executed for the 1977 murder of 62-year-old Lillian Montgomery of Tuscaloosa. She was shot in the head and robbed after befriending Hubbard, who had been released from prison after serving 19 years for a 1957 killing.
A pale, white-haired Hubbard maintained eye contact with his daughter Barbara McKinney, who witnessed the execution from another room, until he died.
Montgomery’s son, Jimmy Montgomery, who also witnessed the execution, said he was disappointed that Hubbard offered no last words or apology.
“I didn’t expect him to go as easy as he did today without saying something,” Jimmy Montgomery said, adding that he did not forgive Hubbard and believed he deserved a harsher form of death.
Earlier yesterday, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to deny a stay for Hubbard. His attorney contended the execution would amount to cruel and unusual punishment for someone so old and mentally incompetent.
Governor Bob Riley rejected a request to commute Hubbard’s sentence for what he called a “heinous and violent” crime.
Hubbard is the oldest person executed in the United States since 1941, when James Stephens of Colorado was executed at age 76.
