Protestors call for external review of Alabama execution protocol

About a dozen protestors gathered at the steps of the Alabama State Capitol on Friday to call on public officials to have a third party conduct an external investigation of the state’s execution procedures.

“We do not trust the Alabama Department of Corrections to properly investigate itself, and who would?” said rally organizer Dawson Hicks of Troy. “We believe a third party must conduct the investigation. We oppose the death penalty for a variety of reasons including systemic and racial inequalities in Alabama’s criminal legal system, but even supporters of executions want to make sure the state gets it right.”

Gov. Kay Ivey called for a moratorium on executions in November following the unsuccessful attempts to execute Alan Eugene Miller and James Edward Barber, as well as the controversial execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. She called for executions to pause while the state conducted a “top to bottom” review of the state’s execution procedures.

Ivey announced the end of the internal review at the end of February, after successfully arguing for a larger timeframe to complete executions to prevent death row inmates from “gaming the system.”