TRUE CRIME: The Story and Execution of Joe Nathan James, Jr.
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You are listening to the Jordan is my lawyer podcast. This is your host Jordan, and I give you the legal analysis you've been waiting for. Here's the deal. I don't care about your political views, but I do ask that you listen to the facts, have an open mind and think for yourselves. Deal? Oh, and one last thing. I'm not actually a lawyer.

What is up, guys? Welcome back to the Jordan is my lawyer podcast. I am particularly excited for this episode because it is my first ever true crime episode. I don't know many people that don't like true crime. That's just a fact. Not only is true crime the number one podcast genre, but

But whenever I post about true crime on TikTok or on my YouTube, people love it. So I figured why not add it to the podcast menu? But my true crime series will be a bit different than other true crime shows that you may watch or listen to in the sense that I am going to incorporate the death penalty into my true crime series.

My favorite class in law school was called Death Penalty and the Law. I was able to learn about the death penalty and its history, and I even got the opportunity to talk to a death row inmate over the phone. It was truly such a unique, memorable experience. In these episodes that deal with the death penalty specifically, I'm going to talk about

I'm going to cover the crime that was committed and ultimately led to the defendant's conviction, the defendant's appeals process, because these cases are almost always appealed, and not just once, but many times. So I'm still going to incorporate that legal aspect. I'm going to cover the details of the execution, which can be a bit vulgar at times, but we're going to cover it nonetheless.

I'm also going to discuss other unique pieces of information that may pertain specifically to one defendant's case or another, such as their last meal or their last words or any unique circumstances that happened in their situation. Now, for those of you who have been here since the beginning, I just want to say that my law content is not going anywhere.

I'm simply expanding my topics, so don't worry. I will still be posting my weekly legal episode where I remain neutral, unbiased, impartial. I promise you that is here to stay because I know you guys love that. All I'm doing is adding another item to the menu. So for this episode, my first true crime episode, my first death penalty episode, I'm going to cover the inmate most recently executed here in the United States.

His name was Joe Nathan James Jr. Joe Nathan James Jr. was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, Faith Hall Smith. Joe and Faith had dated in the early 1990s, and according to court documents from the United States Court of Appeals, they had a pretty volatile relationship. After Joe and Faith broke up, Joe allegedly stalked and harassed Faith on multiple occasions,

At one point, he went to Faith's house, and Faith was actually there with her ex-husband at the time, and Joe threatened to kill the both of them. Then, on August 15th, 1994, Faith and her friend Tammy Sneed were driving home after a day of shopping. As they got closer to Tammy's apartment, Faith and Tammy noticed Joe's car in their rearview mirror.

Faith and Tammy allegedly ran into Tammy's apartment once they parked the car. They were hoping to get away from Joe and just make it inside safely. And once they were inside, they called the police. And at the same time, they're trying to hold the door closed, the front door closed, so he can't get in. It's unclear if the door had a lock on it or not. I'm assuming it didn't. And that's why they had to hold the door shut. But Joe ultimately ended up forcing his way inside.

Once he was inside, he was enraged. He confronted Faith while holding a .38 caliber pistol. He accused her of being disloyal and deceitful. And it was clear that he was not happy. Faith attempted to run out of the room, but Joe shot her in the chest first, and then the abdomen, and then the head. Keep in mind that while this is happening, Faith's friend Tammy is in the apartment and

and Tammy's two children are sleeping in the other room. In my opinion, Tammy is lucky to be alive. I could totally see someone like Joe not wanting any witnesses because, of course, all it takes is Tammy to say Joe is the one that did it and Joe is guilty. Faith was 26 years old at the time of her murder and she was the mother of two children when she died.

After her murder, Joe left the state but was later arrested in California and brought back to Alabama to face trial. Joe's trial took place in Jefferson County in 1996, where a jury convicted him of capital murder and recommended the death penalty. Here's a fact that you might not know.

In capital cases in some states, the jury's decision is not actually a binding verdict, meaning their verdict doesn't have to be the ultimate verdict, but rather their verdict is a recommendation to the judge. The presiding judge in that case may be required to highly consider the recommendation of the jury, but ultimately the judge is the one that makes the final decision of whether or not the defendant will be sentenced to death.

or given life without parole. This isn't in all states that have the death penalty, this is just in some, Alabama happens to be one of them. So in Joe's case, the jury recommended the death penalty, but the judge is ultimately the one that sentenced him. However, the conviction didn't stand for long.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Joe's conviction based on the erroneous admission of certain police reports into evidence. Joe was then set to stand trial once more. Before the retrial, Joe's legal team actually arranged a plea deal with prosecutors in which Joe would receive life in prison in exchange for a guilty plea.

But Joe rejected the deal. According to a court filing detailing why the plea deal was rejected, Joe explained that he actually had it pretty good on death row. He had his own room. He had his own television that he could control what he wanted to watch. He had plenty of reading material. He didn't have to worry about being attacked by other prisoners because he was always one-on-one with the guards, according to him. I mean, good for him.

he figures he'd rather have limited time in a relatively comfortable living situation than have the rest of his life in an uncomfortable living situation. I honestly don't know which I would prefer. It's like, yeah, you're gonna die one day, so are you better off living in a comfortable quote-unquote environment until then? And I say comfortable with air quotes because I don't know if I would necessarily consider death row objectively comfortable, but who am I to say?

Never been. So, Joe was put on trial again in 1999, and the second jury convicted Joe of capital murder

and again sentenced him to death. In 2020, the United States Court of Appeals upheld the conviction despite Joe's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Shortly before his execution, he filed a motion to stay his execution, which essentially just means put it on hold. The motion was rejected by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit just two days before his execution. Now, here's the thing.

Faith's family didn't even want him to be executed. Faith's mom actually said, Faith was a loving, forgiving person. I'm quite sure if she was here today or if she were in this situation, she would want to forgive. We don't think execution is called for because it won't bring her back. Faith's brother said to one of the media outlets that attended the execution,

meaning Joe, did a horrible thing. He has suffered enough and I don't think that taking his life is gonna make our life any better." And Faith's own daughter said in a statement, "I just feel like we can't play God. We can't take a life and it's not going to bring my mom back." And you know what? This feeling from the victim's family actually isn't abnormal.

The families of victims in these situations tend to feel one of two ways. Either that the execution is necessary and deserved, or the way Faith's family feels. That execution won't bring their loved one back, so it doesn't really make sense to do. Nonetheless, on July 28th, 2022...

At the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, after turning down his last meal, Joe was brought into the execution chamber. He was set to be put to death at 6 p.m.

But the prison didn't bring the media witnesses to the correctional facility until 6:33 p.m. Therein lies your first delay. And yes, for those who aren't familiar with the process, witnesses are typically allowed to watch the execution. The witnesses generally consist of media and family of the inmate as well as family of the victim. After almost a three-hour delay and media witnesses waiting in a prison van,

the execution began at 9 p.m. It's important to note that delays of this length are not normal. There are reports that I read that the reason for the delay was that there were issues getting the IV into Joe's arm. According to Alabama's official execution protocol, if lethal injection is the means of execution,

The warden is supposed to notify the IV team and schedule a time for them to view the inmates' veins in the weeks prior to the scheduled execution. At that point, the team can decide if starting the IV through normal channels is possible.

If it's not possible due to an inmate's vein structure, the team will plan to start a central line. And this applies to execution day as well. If the IV team decides on the day of the execution that the veins are in such a condition that intravenous access cannot happen, then

the team will perform a central line procedure. And if you're wondering what a central line is as opposed to the typical IV we hear of or we know of, a central line tends to be longer and larger and it's

inserted into a central vein. So it's typically inserted in the neck, upper chest, or groin, whereas the IV that we tend to see is inserted in the arm or the hand into smaller veins. And upon insertion, the central line tends to be more uncomfortable and painful than an IV.

So it's possible, I guess, that the delay was a result of this central line procedure. Maybe they couldn't get that intravenous access, and so they had to go with the central line. After the team finishes the IV process, the warden reports to the chamber. And at that point, the death warrant is read. So Joe's death warrant was read at 9.03 p.m. Attorney General Steve Marshall cleared the execution to commence at 9.04 p.m.

which is when the lethal mixture was administered into Joe's arm. Each state, keep in mind, has their own lethal injection protocol. Obviously, we're only talking about those states in which the death penalty is legal, but this is Alabama's. So first, two drugs are administered through the IV. There are two separate syringes, 50 milliliter syringes, of midazolam hydrochloride.

and one 20-milliliter syringe of saline. At first, only one of the midazolam syringes is injected, and then the saline is administered. Once these two are given, a team member in the chamber will check to see if the inmate is conscious.

If conscious, the warden will administer that second syringe of midazolam. After all 100 milliliters of midazolam and 20 milliliters of saline are administered, the team checks for consciousness again. Once unconscious, the warden then administers 120 milliliters of potassium chloride, which stops the heart. And this is given in two different 60 milliliter syringes.

According to reports, Joe's eyes were closed for the entire procedure. He had no last words, and after one minute of the initial drugs being administered, Joe appeared to have labored breathing. Labored breathing is essentially an increased effort to breathe, and is characterized by nasal flaring, grunting, and the use of accessory muscles of respiration. This labored breathing lasted until about 9-10 p.m.

So five minutes. A correctional officer then performed a consciousness check consisting of shouting Joe's name, flicking his eyelid, and pinching his arm. Now, I don't know about you, but this just seems like a very, I don't want to use the word barbaric, but it seems like a very outdated method to test consciousness.

I don't know, like I said, maybe that's just me. Joe didn't respond to any of these checks, although his head did slightly move after the arm pinch, which in my opinion may indicate that although he was unconscious, he did still have feeling.

And this is something we have seen with the lethal injection. The lethal injection has actually had quite a few issues in recent years. There have been quite a few botched executions, and that is something I can go over entirely in another episode because I could spend a whole episode talking about that alone. But nonetheless, it was at 9.12 p.m. that Joe appeared to stop breathing. The curtains to the viewing room closed at 9.18 p.m.

and Joe's official time of death was 9-27. After the execution, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement that read, "...justice has been served. Joe James was put to death for the heinous act he committed nearly three decades ago. The cold-blooded murder of an innocent young mother."

In the years since, Joe James has tried to blame everything and everyone in an attempt to escape the consequences of his crime. He has claimed that his highly experienced trial counsel was ineffective, that his artful appellate counsel was deficient,

and in a demonstration of shocking cowardice and callousness that his victim bore the blame for her own murder. Tonight, Joe James finally received his just punishment. Now, I want to ask you, after everything you just heard, how do you feel? How did this story make you feel about the death penalty? Did it make you feel any type of way?

How do you feel about the lethal injection as a method of execution? And how do you feel about the victim's family not wanting this man to be executed, but him being executed nonetheless? What's ironic is that I myself am terrified of death. Legitimately, it is my worst fear ever.

But for some reason, the history and processes behind the death penalty are just so intriguing to me. I have so much more where this came from, and I can't wait to share all of my knowledge with you. I'm genuinely so excited to add this true crime series to my podcast.

If there is ever a particular topic related to the death penalty or true crime generally, feel free to reach out to me. I have a contact form on my website, jordanismylawyer.com.

You guys can submit anything that you'd like to hear about. I can't promise you I'll cover it all, but I certainly want to know what you guys are interested in. And if you enjoyed this episode, please leave my podcast a five-star review. It helps more than you know. So until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, stay beautiful, and I will talk to you soon.