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U.S. | 'I comfort death row inmates in their final moments - the execution room is like a house of horrors'

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Reverend Jeff Hood, 40, wants to help condemned inmates 'feel human again' and vows to continue his efforts to befriend murderers in spite of death threats against his family A reverend who has made it his mission to comfort death row inmates in their final days has revealed the '"moral torture" his endeavor entails. Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in Little Rock, Arkansas. But away from his normal home life, he can suddenly find himself holding the shoulder of a murderer inside an execution chamber, moments away from the end of their life. 

Execution Date Set For Two Alabama Death Row Inmates

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Torrey Twane McNabb, left, Jeffrey Lynn Borden
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – The Alabama Supreme Court has set execution dates for two death row inmates.

Jeffrey Lynn Borden is set to die by lethal injection on Oct. 5.

Borden was convicted of killing his estranged wife, Cheryl Borden, and her father, Roland Harris, during a Christmas Eve gathering in Jefferson County in 1993.

Torrey Twane McNabb is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 19.

McNabb was convicted of killing Montgomery police officer Anderson Gordon in 1997.

Court records show that juries recommended the death sentence by a 10-2 vote in each case and judges agreed.

The state attorney general’s office asked the court to set execution dates for both men earlier this month.

Alabama has executed two death row inmates so far in 2017.

Source: The Associated Press, August 30, 2017


Alabama sets execution dates for 2 inmates; both set to die in October


Alabama's death chamber
The Alabama Supreme Court has scheduled October execution dates for 2 death row inmates.

Jeffrey Borden is set to be executed on October 5, and Torrey Twane McNabb on October 19.

The Alabama Attorney General's office had asked the state's highest court earlier this month to set execution dates for 3 inmates-- Borden, McNabb, and Doyle Lee Hamm. No execution date was set for Hamm.

McNabb has spent the last 18 years on death row, after being convicted of fatally shooting Montgomery police officer Anderson Gordon in September 1997. McNabb was convicted on 2 capital murder counts-- 1 for killing Gordon while he was on duty, and 1 for killing him as Gordon sat in his patrol car. McNabb also was found guilty of 2 additional counts of attempted murder.

Borden has been on death row for 22 years, and was convicted of the murders of Cheryl Borden and her father Roland Harris. The murders took place at a family gathering in Gardendale on Christmas Eve 1993. Court records show Borden travelled from Huntsville to Gardendale to bring his 3 children to Cheryl Borden, his legally separate wife and the children's mother. After Cheryl Borden arrived, Jeffrey Borden shot her in the back of her head outside the house in the presence of the children. Borden then shot Roland Harris, his wife's father, in the back as Harris tried to run into the house.

AG Steve Marshall said earlier this month that the state does not anticipate any problems securing enough drugs to execute the men. "Yes, we have the means," he said, when asked if the state would be able to follow through.

John Palombi, Assistant Federal Defender for the Federal Defenders for the Middle District of Alabama who represents both McNabb and Borden, commented on both execution dates:

"It was premature for the Alabama Supreme Court to set an execution date for Mr. McNabb. Mr. McNabb has a pending case in Montgomery Circuit Court challenging the legality of his death sentence after the Supreme Court's decision in Hurst v. Florida... This case was filed long before the State requested an execution date for Mr. McNabb, and the Circuit Court previously indicated that it wanted a hearing on the issue," he said.

"Jeffrey Borden is severely mentally ill, and has been since at least the age of 17, when he sustained a serious head injury that left him in a coma for four days and permanently damaged his judgment and ability to control his impulses. The same principles that exempt the intellectually disabled and people who committed crimes before the age of 18 from being executed apply to cases like Mr. Borden's, where the individual who committed the crime had a diminished ability to control himself or understand the full implications of his actions," Palombi said.

Alabama has executed 2 death row inmates in 2017 - Tommy Arthur on May 25 and Robert Melson on June 8.

Source: al.com, August 31, 2017


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Alabama, USA
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