Lawyers for the next man scheduled to die by lethal injection in Alabama will appear Wednesday before a federal judge in Montgomery.

James Barber is scheduled for execution during a 30-hour window that begins at 12 a.m. on July 20 and ends at 6 a.m. on July 21.

Barber was sentenced to death in 2004 for the murder of Dorothy Epps in 2001. Barber beat the 75-year-old woman to death with his fists and a claw hammer in her home in Madison County.

Barber’s lawyers have asked the court to block his execution by lethal injection, alleging it will violate the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishments because of the problems that affected Alabama’s last three lethal injections. The execution of Joe Nathan James Jr., took more than three hours to complete in July 2022 because of problems accessing James’ veins. The two executions scheduled since then, of Alan Eugene Miller in September and Kenneth Eugene Smith in November, were called off in process because the execution team was unable to establish IV connections.

After the Smith execution failed, Gov. Kay Ivey called for a pause in executions so the Alabama Department of Corrections could conduct a review of the procedure. The review ended in February, clearing the way for executions to resume. Barber’s would be the first since the review.

Barber claims there is no indication Alabama has fixed its problems in carrying out executions.

“Mr. Barber stands next in line to be executed via the same failed IV access procedures and practices that led to three botched executions last year,” Barber’s attorneys wrote in their motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the lethal injection.

Barber’s motion says Alabama’s alternative method of execution — by nitrogen hypoxia — carries much less risk of severe pain. The Alabama Legislature passed a bill in 2018 to allow nitrogen hypoxia. The Alabama Department of Corrections has said it is not ready to use nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method no state has ever used.

Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a motion on Friday to dismiss Barber’s lawsuit.

“Barber’s claim is wholly founded on a hypothetical and speculative claim: that his execution will follow the allegedly flawed course of the preparations for one recent execution and the unsuccessful preparations for two subsequent executions, despite the many successful executions that Alabama has carried out and the recent improvements to Alabama’s lethal injection protocol,” the state’s motion says.

Barber would be the first inmate executed under a new 30-hour time window adopted after the pause and review of executions. Alabama has previously scheduled executions for 6 p.m. with the requirement that they be finished by midnight, when the execution warrant expires. The Alabama Supreme Court changed the practice of setting executions on a specific date, and is instead allowing the governor to determine a time frame.