Alabama Executes 74 Year Old Man With Cancer
James Barney Hubbard, 74 years old, suffering from colon and prostate cancer and other diseases, was executed tonight by the state of Alabama. He was Alabama's oldest death row inmate:
Hubbard had asked the Supreme Court to stop his execution because he is too old and sick to be put to death. The Supreme Court denied his motion on a 5-to-4 vote. Moments later, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley announced he would not intervene in the execution.
Hubbard’s lawyers argued that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment for their client who had developed cancer, emphysema, hepatitis and dementia during his 27 years in prison. Groups that track and oppose the death penalty said Hubbard would be the oldest inmate executed in the United States since 1941 if the lethal injection was carried out.
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