RECIDIVIST KILLER: JAMES BARNEY HUBBARD (EXECUTED ON AUGUST 5, 2004)

            On this date, August 5, 2004, James Barney Hubbard (March 7, 1930 – August 5, 2004) was sentenced to death by the state of Alabama in 1977 for the murder of Lillian Montgomery, with whom he was living after having been released from prison. Hubbard had served a 20-year sentence for murder and called police to report a shooting on January 10, 1977. He said Lillian had shot herself at her home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She died as the result of three gunshot wounds, one to the face, one to the head, and one to the shoulder. He was executed by lethal injection 27 years after the murder. At age 74, he was the oldest American to be executed in decades.

            He was another example of a recidivist murderer that had committed murder and was released more than 15 years later only to murder again. 

James Hubbard

 

James Hubbard

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/hubbard922.htm

Summary: Hubbard first went to prison in 1957 for a second-degree murder conviction in the death of David Dockery in Tuscaloosa County. He was released in 1976 and killed again the next year. His second victim, 62-year-old store owner Lillian Montgomery, was shot three times and robbed of her gold and diamond wristwatch and about $500 in cash and checks. Montgomery had befriended Hubbard and "sponsored" him to gain his release in 1976. Hubbard moved into her home next door to the store she ran in Tuscaloosa. Hubbard said he had been drinking whiskey with Montgomery and claimed she committed suicide, calling the police to report the shooting. She died as the result of three gunshot wounds, one to the face, one to the head, and one to the shoulder. A difficult accomplishment as a suicide. Hubbard was the oldest inmate to be executed since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. 

Citations:
Hubbard v. State, 382 So.2d 577 (Ala.Cr.App. 1979). (Direct Appeal)
Hubbard v. State, 405 So.2d 695 (Ala.Cr.App. 1981).
Hubbard v. State, 500 So.2d 1204 (Ala.Cr.App. 1986). (Direct Appeal)
Hubbard v. State, 584 So.2d 895 (Ala.Cr.App. 1991). (PCR)
Hubbard v. Haley, 317 F.3d 1245 (11th Cir. 2003). (Habeas) 

Final Meal:
Two eggs over-medium, four pieces of bacon, sliced tomatoes, fried green tomatoes, pineapple slices with mayonnaise, white bread, a banana and a medium-sized V8 juice. 

Final Words:
None. 

ProDeathPenalty.Com

James Hubbard was sentenced to death in 1977 for the murder of Lillian Montgomery, whom he was living with after having been released from prison. Hubbard had served a 20 year sentence for a murder conviction, and called police to report a shooting on January 10, 1977. He said Lillian had shot herself at her home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She died as the result of three gunshot wounds, one to the face, one to the head, and one to the shoulder, a difficult accomplishment as a suicide.

Hubbard's execution by lethal injection for killing a Tuscaloosa woman who befriended him is set for Aug. 5 at Holman Prison near Atmore. Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw said Hubbard has exhausted his appeals after 27 years, but he has been near execution before only to win a delay. Hubbard, who has maintained his innocence during the lengthy appeals, recently was moved from Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer to Holman. Warden Grantt Culliver said Hubbard spends his time reading and watching television. He hasn't exercised outside, but he has participated in a prison religious group.

Bill Hayes, a Florida-based capital punishment historian, said Hubbard will be the oldest by far in the current series of executions that date to 1976. He said 24 inmates in their 60s have been executed nationwide in that period. The U.S. Supreme Court, in its 1976 landmark ruling, reinstated the death penalty by upholding new death penalty laws in Florida, Georgia, and Texas as constitutional. The court also held that the death penalty itself was constitutional under the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and ended a 10-year moratorium on executions in which reforms were completed. Hayes said the oldest person executed in the 20th century was 83-year-old Joe Lee of Virginia in 1916, but Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections in that state, said Lee's actual age was in dispute and he may have been 68. But there have been at least 16 others in their 70s and 80s executed, according to Hayes' research.

Nationwide, about 3,400 inmates await execution in the 38 states that allow capital punishment. A survey by The Associated Press in death-penalty states found at least two states - California and Arizona - with inmates in their 80s with no execution dates set. California has about 650 inmates on death row, the nation's most clogged. Arizona apparently has the nation's oldest - 88-year-old Viva Leroy Nash. Several other states have inmates in their 70s awaiting execution. The oldest inmate on Indiana's death row is Richard D. Moore, who turned 73 on June 5. On the only federal death row, also in Indiana, the oldest prisoner is 52 years old. In Florida, John Vining, 73, has been through the federal court system once and had new appeals denied by the Florida Supreme Court on May 20. William Cruse, 76, was convicted in the slayings of six people in 1987. However, he was declared mentally incompetent in 2002.

In Alabama, Hubbard's age is not an issue for Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Tommy Smith, who prosecuted Hubbard for the killing that put him on death row. Hubbard wasn't elderly when he killed and Smith said the issue is the "unconscionable delays" on appeals that allowed him to stay alive. "You need to get to a final point expeditiously," Smith said.

Hubbard first went to prison in 1957 for a second-degree murder conviction in the death of David Dockery in Tuscaloosa County. He was released in 1976 and killed again the next year. His second victim, 62-year-old store owner Lillian Montgomery, was shot three times and robbed of her gold and diamond wristwatch and about $500 in cash and checks. She had befriended Hubbard and "sponsored" him to gain his release in 1976, Smith said. Hubbard had moved into her home next door to the store she ran on U.S. Highway 82, according to court records. In a police statement, Hubbard said he had been drinking whiskey with Montgomery and claimed she committed suicide. Prosecutors introduced evidence that she couldn't have fired the fatal shots on Jan. 10, 1977.

Hubbard was twice convicted in her death. An appeals court overturned the first conviction. But he was again sentenced to death at retrial and last year the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review it. The victim's son, Jimmy Montgomery, 66, a Tuscaloosa businessman, said he and his sister plan to attend the execution. "I hope it will be over," Montgomery said. "He shot her with a pistol I'd given her." Another son, 58-year-old Johnny Montgomery, a Birmingham-area real estate agent, doesn't plan to witness the execution, saying he feels "powerless" over what goes on with Hubbard and has never communicated with him. "One time I could have taken care of this guy with my own hands if they let me," the younger brother said in a telephone interview. "God has given me peace with this. I have forgiven him."

UPDATE: A federal appeals court Wednesday refused to block the execution of the state's oldest death row inmate, a convicted killer who robbed and shot a woman who had befriended him. James Hubbard, 74, is scheduled to be executed by injection Thursday, despite pleas from his lawyers, who said he is too old and sick to be put to death. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied their request for a stay. Hubbard contends that because of his "advanced age" and mental incompetence, his execution would be a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Hubbard is scheduled to die for the 1977 slaying of 62-year-old Lillian Montgomery, a Tuscaloosa woman who befriended him after he served a prison sentence for another killing. He was recently diagnosed with dementia; a psychologist concluded his condition may cause confusion and interfere with his ability to understand legal procedures, according to papers his attorneys filed in the appeals court. Hubbard also claims he is suffering from hepatitis, diverticulitis, hypertension and acute back pain. State's attorneys said his claims did not warrant a stay of the execution.