Alabama Set to Execute Murderer

An Alabama man who murdered his ex girlfriend in 1994, is scheduled for execution by lethal injection on July 28.  Ivana Hrynkiw of the Birmingham News reports that Joe Nathan James, Jr.  was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for capital murder during the commission of burglary.   James had dated Faith Hall in the early 1990s but the relationship was volatile and Hall broke up with him.  For the next several years James would stalk Hall, showing up at her home and threatening to kill her.  On the day of the murder, James forced his way in to an apartment Hall was visiting, demanded information about a man she was seeing, and shot her three times when she attempted to escape.  After shooting Hall in the stomach and chest, he shot her in the head as she lay on the floor.  On appeal James’ claim of ineffective assistance of counsel was denied by several courts.  In 2020 the Eleventh Circuit upheld his conviction and sentence, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined review.