A 51-YEAR-OLD MAN was executed by lethal injection in the western US state of Oklahoma today for stabbing a woman to death nearly 30 years ago, officials said. 

Jemaine Cannon, who was executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, is one of two death row inmates scheduled to die today.

James Barber, 54, also a convicted murderer, is to be executed in Alabama in the first use of lethal injection in the southern state since a series of botched executions last year.

Cannon was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of Sharonda Clark, 20, a mother of two children.

“Justice was finally served this morning for Sharonda Clark with the execution of her murderer,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement.

“My hope is that today’s action can bring some measure of peace for Sharonda’s two daughters, as well as her other family members and friends who loved her.”

Barber, a handyman, was convicted in Alabama in 2003 of beating 75-year-old Dorothy Epps to death with a hammer during a 2001 robbery.

He is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey issued a temporary moratorium on executions last year after problems with lethal injections.

In one case, on 28 July, 2022, during the execution of convicted murderer Joe James Jr. it took three hours to set an intravenous line.

Two other execution attempts in Alabama were halted because of problems setting IV lines.

Barber will be the first inmate put to death in Alabama since the moratorium on executions was lifted after the completion of a review of procedures in February.

There have been 14 executions in the United States so far this year.