A man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend has been executed in the US state of Alabama. The death sentence against 49-year-old Joe Nathan James was carried out on Thursday evening, according to the southern state judiciary.
James was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Faith Hall. The court found him guilty of the 1994 shooting of the then 26-year-old, who had separated from him after a short relationship.
The victim’s relatives recently spoke out in favor of not executing James. “We are not God,” Hall’s daughter Terryln told CBS 42. Her sister Toni Hall said, “An eye for an eye was never a good perspective on life.”
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall asked Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to carry out the sentence. She had checked all the documents, she explained the day before the execution, and there was no reason to stop the proceedings.
Marshall declared after the execution: “Justice has been served.” James was convicted of a “heinous” crime – “the cold-blooded murder of an innocent young mother.”