A clemen­cy let­ter-writ­ing cam­paign orga­nized by Alabama death row pris­on­ers on behalf of James Barney Hubbard, an ail­ing 74-year-old man who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on August 5th, was recent­ly halt­ed by Department of Correction author­i­ties at Donaldson Prison. Just two months before Hubbard’s sched­uled exe­cu­tion, Willie Dorrell Minor wrote a clemen­cy peti­tion to Alabama Governor Robert Riley. He planned to have the peti­tion ask­ing Riley to spare Hubbard’s life signed by oth­er indi­vid­u­als on the state’s death row before sub­mit­ting it to the Governor. The let­ter read, in part, ​“Mr. Hubbard has been ill for sev­er­al years suf­fer­ing from prostate can­cer, colon can­cer and ulcers to name some of his health prob­lems. Given the con­di­tion of this elder­ly and sick man I respect­ful­ly sub­mit that the pend­ing exe­cu­tion of Mr. Hubbard is offen­sive to every civ­i­lized Alabamian.This is not an issue of the death penal­ty per se, but rather of jus­tice, mer­cy, and moral­i­ty. I urge you to grant clemen­cy to Mr. Hubbard…Governor Riley, thank you for your mer­cy and con­sid­er­a­tion con­cern­ing this very impor­tant mat­ter.” In order to obtain enough copies of his let­ter to cir­cu­late it to oth­er peo­ple on the state’s death row, Minor had copies made through a death penal­ty group that were then mailed back through the prison mail sys­tem so that each death row inmate could receive a copy to sign and send to the Governor. It was dur­ing this final step that Department of Correction offi­cials con­fis­cat­ed the pack­age of pho­to­copied let­ters. To date, the gov­er­nor has not received a clemen­cy peti­tion on behalf of Hubbard. (Letter from George Jones, July 14, 2004). See Upcoming Executions.

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