Joe Nathan James Jr. executed for 1994 killing of ex-girlfriend in Alabama
Alabama death row inmate Joe Nathan James Jr. was executed by lethal injection Thursday night for the slaying of his ex-girlfriend nearly 3 decades ago.
It’s an execution the victim’s family fought to keep from happening.
The 50-year-old James was executed at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The prison is where death row inmates in the state are housed, and is the only state facility with an execution chamber.
He was set to be put to death at 6 p.m., but the prison did not transport media witnesses to Holman until 6:33 p.m. After an over 2-hour delay with media witnesses waiting in a prison van, the execution began at 9 p.m. and the death warrant was read at 9:03 p.m. James’ eyes were closed for the entire procedure and he had no last words when briefly asked by the warden.
The IV attached to James’ arm shook slightly with movement at 9:05 p.m, and one minute later James appeared to have labored breathing. The labored breathing lasted until about 9:10 p.m., when a correctional officer performed a consciousness check consisting of shouting James’ name, flicking his eyelid and pinching his arm. While James’ head moved to the side after the arm pinch, he did not respond to the motions.
At 9:12 p.m., James appeared to stop breathing. The curtains to the viewing room closed at 9:18 p.m.
The official time of death was 9:27 p.m.
While media witnesses were waiting in the van outside of Holman’s Death Row, inmates inside stared out the windows from their cells. One inmate hung 4 pieces of paper in his window with handwriting that read, “This is a murder” on the top page.
The 2 pages directly below were not readable from a distance. The 4th paper, which was erected while media witnesses watched, read: “Victim family says no.”
After the execution, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement. “Justice has been served. Joe James was put to death for the heinous act he committed nearly 3 decades ago: the cold-blooded murder of an innocent young mother, Faith Hall,” according to the statement.
“In the years since, Joe James has tried to blame everything and everyone in an attempt to escape the consequences of his crime. He has claimed that his highly experienced trial counsel was “ineffective,” that his artful appellate counsel was “deficient,” and — in a demonstration of shocking cowardice and callousness — that his victim bore the blame for her own murder,” Marshall stated.
“Tonight, Joe James finally received his just punishment,” according to the statement.
Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm did not provide a reason for the lengthy delay, saying the prison system was using the time to ensure its processes were done correctly. When asked which process or part of the process was taking the extra time, he did not elaborate.
The state was cleared for the execution after both the U.S. Supreme Court and Alabama Supreme Court denied James’ petitions for a stay of execution late Thursday afternoon.
Before the courts acted Alabama Rep. Juandalynn Givan had released a statement on behalf of Faith Hall’s family. “Today is a tragic day for our family. We are having to relive the hurt that this caused us many years ago. We write to inform you that we have decided to not attend the execution of Mr. Joe Nathan James Jr. We’ve asked Governor Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall to hear our voices and respect our wishes. We know they decided not to.”
“We hoped the state wouldn’t take a life simply because a life was taken and we have forgiven Mr. Joe Nathan James Jr. for his atrocities toward our family. We have relied upon our faith to get us through these dark days. Although we knew this day would come, we hoped to have our voices heard through this process. We’d like to thank State Representative Juandalynn Givan for her help and assistance by reaching out to the Governor’s office. We pray that God allows us to find healing after today and that one day our criminal justice system will listen to the cries of families like ours even if it goes against what the state wishes. Our voices matter and so does the life of Mr. Joe Nathan James, Jr.”
Last meals
Alabama Department of Corrections Public Information Officer Kelly Betts said on Wednesday, James had no visitors. He did have phone calls with attorney James Ransom and his mother.
He was observed eating regular lunch and dinner trays.
On Thursday, James also received no visitors but had phone calls with Ransom and 2 other lawyers: John Palombi of the Federal Public Defenders for the Middle District of Alabama, and Tatiana Bertsch.
Today he refused breakfast, which is usually served between 3 a.m and 5 a.m., ate lunch, and then refused his dinner meal. He did not want a last meal and had no last requests.
James had made several arguments, without attorneys, to courts in his final days and weeks.
The Alabama Attorney General’s office responded to James’ recent filings before the U.S. Supreme Court. James waited until late in the process to file appeals, the Attorney General’s Office stated. “Petitioner’s (James’) late-breaking amendments are nothing more than a naked attempt to delay his lawful execution. They do not offer any meritorious grounds for granting the requested stay and this Court should not grant relief.”
Also, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey considered the request for clemency by the victim’s family - countering a claim that James says violated the family’s First Amendment rights to petition the government and express any religious beliefs they may have, the attorney general’s office argues. James had argued his execution would “violate his First Amendment rights and those of his victim’s family because the (Quran) requires the wishes of the victim’s family to be taken into account.” But the attorney general argued James “fails to identify any infringement beyond his execution itself and fails to cite any authority for a First Amendment right “not to be executed.”
James was convicted of capital murder twice for shooting Faith Hall inside her friend’s Birmingham apartment on Aug. 15, 1994. Hall was James’ former girlfriend, who court records say he stalked and harassed after their breakup.
In a flurry of court filings in the weeks and days ahead of his set execution, James claimed the state couldn’t kill him because he had pending court cases. He also argued that he wanted to change his execution method to nitrogen hypoxia instead of lethal injection.
There is not yet a state approved process for death by nitrogen hypoxia, and there have been no executions using the method in the United States. In 2018, Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill giving inmates the option to choose execution by nitrogen hypoxia. According to the state, inmates waiting to be executed were allowed to opt in the nitrogen method if they wished, but had to do so within a 30-day period in June 2018. Of the 177 inmates on Alabama’s death row, about 50 inmates at the time chose to die by the new method. Throughout the years, several others have filed lawsuits challenging the opt-in period.
By Tuesday afternoon, the Southern District Court of Alabama had dismissed 2 of James’ lawsuits and the U.S. 11th Circuit of Appeals had also denied issuing a stay. A Jefferson County judge also denied a Rule 32 appeal this week.
Late Wednesday, an attorney representing James in his Jefferson County case-- the only recent case in which he wasn’t representing himself-- filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. The petition asks for a stay of execution.
Also on Wednesday, Gov. Kay Ivey denied commuting James’ sentence.
Faith Hall’s killing
Hall was 26 and had 2 children: Toni Hall Melton, who was 3 at the time her mom died, and Terryln Hall, who was 6. Her surviving brother Helvetius Hall was 24.
“I had 24 sweet, good years with her,” Helvetius Hall said. “She was my rock. She was always there (for me), day or night, for her baby brother.”
“My sister had a heart of gold.”
Court records show in the year prior to Hall’s death, there were 3 harassment and 1 burglary police reports filed by Hall and her grandmother against James. The reports detailed James making threats to kill Hall, entering their home and damaging items, banging on windows, constant calling, sitting in the home’s driveway and more.
According to court records, Hall was shopping with a friend on the day of her murder and returned to that friend’s apartment. When the pair got out of their car, they noticed James had been following them.
The women ran inside the apartment, with Hall’s friend alerting a neighbor to James’ presence. James burst through the door, which the women were trying to barricade, armed with a gun.
The order from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals described the shooting:
“James demanded to know about a man he had seen with (Hall), while (Hall) … asked him to put the gun away—which he did, briefly. After a few minutes, however, James said ‘f**k this s**t,’ pulled his gun back out, and started shooting. (Hall) ran toward the bathroom and James chased her. James shot (Hall) 3 times: once in the abdomen, once through the arm and chest, and once in the top of the head, apparently after she had fallen to the floor. She died of her gunshot wounds.”
Hall’s children were at the home in southwest Birmingham they shared with their mom, great-grandmother, and uncle when the family learned about Hall’s killing.
“It was just chaos,” Toni said.
Since James’ execution date was set by the Alabama Supreme Court earlier this summer, Hall’s daughters and brother have been outspoken about their wishes for James to be spared his life. They urged state officials to commute James’ sentence to one of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“If you were to tell me executing him would bring my mom back... but she’s not coming back,” Toni said. “You take his life, you’re not bringing her back. You’re doing this to another family... That’s not justice at all.”
Alabama Rep. Juandalynn Givan, who was friends with Hall, released a letter to Gov. Kay Ivey last week asking for the commutation.
A representative for Ivey said Tuesday afternoon, “As is the case with any execution, Governor Ivey will carefully review the facts and information surrounding the case.”
On Wednesday, Ivey told reporters the decision had been made. “My staff and I have researched all the records and all the facts. And there’s no reason to change the procedure or modify the outcome, so the execution will go forward,” she said.
Legal arguments
Court records show James was first convicted on the murder charge, made capital because it was committed during a burglary, in August 1996 and sentenced to death row. 2 years later, a court overturned his conviction and sentence due to hearsay being admitted into evidence.
In 1999, James was again convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld James’ conviction in 2010. The Alabama Supreme Court declined to review James’ case in 2017. James appealed to the federal appeals court, arguing his lawyers were ineffective during the sentencing phase of his second trial because they failed to investigate or present evidence on his behalf.
In April 2020, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld James’ conviction. The court’s published opinion said James “failed to show a reasonable probability that his counsel’s performance affected the outcome of his sentencing proceeding.”
The Alabama Attorney General’s Office asked the Alabama Supreme Court to set an execution date for James in March.
Court records show the U.S. Supreme Court denied James’ petition for certiorari, or request to review his case, in 2001. The high court also declined to review the case in March 2021.
The federal appeals court’s latest order denying his claims explained James’ summer filings like this:
“On the eve of his execution… James filed two separate… complaints in the Southern District of Alabama. In (one case) James alleged that the Attorney General of Alabama violated the Equal Protection Clause by setting his execution date before the execution dates of other similarly situated death-row inmates represented by the federal public defender’s office. In (the other case) James alleged that five state officials violated the Due Process Clause by issuing and serving the execution warrant in violation of Alabama law. The district court issued two orders. In case (one) the district court denied James’s motion to stay his execution. And, in case (2), the district court denied James’s motion to stay his execution and dismissed his complaint because it failed to state a claim. James appeals both orders and has moved for a stay of execution. After careful review of the record and the parties’ briefs, we affirm the district court’s orders and deny his stay motion.”
James becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabama, and the 70th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.
James becomes the 8th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA, and the 1,548th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Source: al.com, Staff, Rick Halperin, July 29, 2022
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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
