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Thread: Alabama Capital Punishment News

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Suit claims blacks wrongly excluded from jury service for years in Houston and Henry counties

    Five blacks who were wrongly excluded from serving on juries have filed a lawsuit challenging that prosecutors in Houston and Henry counties have for years excluded blacks based on race.

    A group called the Equal Justice Initiative filed the claim contending District Attorney Douglas Valeska has illegally excluded qualified blacks from serving on juries in serious felony cases, especially capital cases, for decades.

    The plaintiffs are five African Americans who state court rulings previously found were illegally excluded from jury service, according to a statement released by EJI. The lawsuit seeks, among other things, ongoing monitoring of jury selection in Houston and Henry counties by a federal court.

    Filed in U.S. District Court in Montgomery, the suit alleges violations of the U.S. Constitution and federal anti-discrimination laws.

    The complaint alleges that from 2006 to 2010 state prosecutors in Dothan excluded 82 percent of qualified black jurors in death-penalty cases. As a result, the jury in every death-penalty case in Houston County over this period has been all white or had only a single black juror despite the fact that the circuit is nearly 25 percent African American, the EJI statement said.
    "Mr. Valeska has repeatedly been found to have illegally excluded black people from jury service with peremptory strikes in capital cases but he continues the practice because most people don't know about it," said Bryan Stevenson, lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

    http://blog.al.com/montgomery/2011/1...ongly_exc.html

  2. #12
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    Alabama is near the top in imposing, conducting the death penalty

    Alabama ranks second in the nation for the number of executions it conducted in 2011 and is tied for third in death sentences imposed this year, statistics compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center show.

    "Alabama is one of the leading death penalty states in the country," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based DPIC. "It is a leader in executions and death sentences, both in absolute numbers and per capita."

    Alabama ranks 23rd nationally in population but has the country's fifth-largest death-row population. Its 55 executions since 1976, when a four-year national moratorium on the death penalty was lifted, puts Alabama sixth among states allowing capital punishment.

    Alabama put six murderers to death by lethal injection in 2011, accounting for 14 percent of the 43 executions nationwide, according to the annual year-end report by the clearinghouse on death penalty statistics.

    Texas, with 13 executions this year, led the nation. No more executions are set this year in any of the 34 states that allow capital punishment, the DPIC said.

    Nationally in 2011, the number of executions dropped slightly, continuing a general decline since 2000. The 43 executions in the U.S. were three fewer than in 2010 and a 49 percent drop from 2000, when 85 killers were put to death.

    Alabama's eight death sentences in 2011 puts it behind only Florida (13) and California (10), according to the DPIC. Arizona and Texas also reported eight death sentences in 2011.

    "Death sentencing in Alabama is down somewhat from the 1990s," Dieter said. "But it has not dropped as dramatically as in other states, and it still remains high for a state its size. Alabama still shows a strong commitment to the death penalty."

    The number of new death sentences nationally dropped 30 percent versus the 2010 level.

    Through mid-December, 78 death sentences were imposed nationally. That is a 65 percent reduction since 2000, when 224 murderers were condemned, according to the DPIC.

    Murderers were sentenced to death this year in both Jefferson and Shelby counties. They were:

    Anthony Lane, who robbed and shot to death Frank Wright in Birmingham in 2009 as the Indiana man, in town to do contract work, was washing his car with plans to pick up his wife at the airport.

    Bart Wayne Johnson, who shot to death Philip David, a Pelham police officer who had pulled him over on Interstate 65 in Shelby County for speeding in 2009.

    This year marks the first time since 1976 that fewer than 100 murderers were sentenced to death in the United States, DPIC statistics show.

    Alabama is seeing a drop in death sentences, statistics show. After averaging 13 per year from 1977 to 2007, judges have condemned an average of roughly nine murderers over the last four years.

    "This year, the use of the death penalty continued to decline by almost every measure," Dieter said. "Whether it's concern about unfairness, executing the innocent, the high costs of the death penalty, or the general feeling that the government just can't get it right, Americans moved further away from capital punishment in 2011."

    Polls conducted this year show capital punishment still has strong but diminishing support in the U.S.

    A national Gallup Poll about the death penalty, which offered no alternatives, found 61 percent supporting capital punishment, compared to 80 percent in 1994, the DPIC reported.

    A CNN poll giving respondents a choice between death and life without parole had 50 percent favoring the lesser sentence and 48 percent choosing death, the DPIC report said.

    In 2011, Illinois became the fourth state in four years to abolish the death penalty. Oregon's governor announced this month no executions would take place in that state before he leaves office in 2015.

    Despite in-state abolition efforts, Alabama's commitment to capital punishment remains strong among politicians and voters, said Natalie Davis, a political science professor at Birmingham Southern University and a public-opinion expert.

    As long as Alabama continues to allow less-than-unanimous jury verdicts calling for death by lethal injection and grants elected judges the right to override those recommendations, state death penalty statistics will remain high, she said.

    "If you're running for a circuit court judgeship and you say you oppose the death penalty, you'll never get elected," Davis said. "It's a deal-breaker for so many voters when it comes to election time."

    http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/12/...op_in_imp.html

  3. #13
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    Selma senator wants to abolish death penalty

    A state senator from Selma says he plans to introduce a bill to abolish the death penalty in Alabama during the upcoming regular session of the Legislature.

    “I call it murder when the state of Alabama makes the deliberate decision to kill a person,” said Sen. Henry “Hank” Sanders,D-Selma.

    Sanders spoke to the congregation and guests Sunday at the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship for the first in a series of meetings for “The Journey of Hope – from Violence to Healing,” which highlights concerns about the death penalty in Alabama.

    While Sanders had introduced legislation for a moratorium on executions previously, he said he plans to take the next step in the upcoming session that begins Feb. 7.

    “I will introduce a bill to abolish the death penalty,” said Sanders to the applause of the audience at the church.

    Sanders said that one of the things that bothers him greatly about Alabama is the state’s attempt to use capital punishment as a deterrent.

    “Alabama has a high incarceration rate in the world — not just in the United States, in the world,” Sanders said. “We put a higher percentage of our people in jail and in prison. That tells me that either people of Alabama are worse than people in other places, and I don’t believe that, or something is wrong with the system.”

    He said Alabama’s capital punishment rate is the highest, or second highest, in the country.

    “If that was going to stop folks, then we should have less folks going to death row, not more folks,” he said. “So it is not having that kind of impact.”

    The second meeting in the series, sponsored by the student chapter of Alabama Arise, will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12, on the Auburn University campus in Room 2370 of the Haley Center.

    Three days later, there will be a gathering at Toomer’s Corner at 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15, for a Martin Luther King Interfaith Vigil for Justice and Peace.

    http://www2.oanow.com/news/2012/jan/...ty-ar-3007558/

  4. #14
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    I found this interesting. If I need to start a thread on elected judges v appointed judges I will!

    Primary race will determine new Supreme Court associate justice

    Jones said party affiliation is important because Democratic and Republican platforms are “quite different from each other.”

    “I support party affiliation for judicial candidates, because the public should know the values, principles and political beliefs of the candidate,” Jones said.

    “Some states use a method of nomination and selection of judges by panels,” she said. “I do not trust panels to remain free from the influence of special interests. I believe the people are in the best position to choose a judge.”

    Bryan and Jones did not express their views on the death penalty because of the requirement to be impartial, but said they will be able to rule on death penalty cases that reach the Supreme Court since the law requires it.

    “If person has a fair trial, that’s what the law says and it’s not up to me make laws,” Bryan said. “It’d be like being a legislator.”

    Jones said, “The law in this state is the death penalty, and every judicial officer is required to uphold the law. I would apply it.”

    Bryan said his experience of almost eight years on the Court of Civil Appeals will help him on the Supreme Court because the Court of Civil Appeals handles many issues for the Supreme Court. “I have a passion for the issues that come before the court,” he said.

    He said he doesn’t have a backlog of cases because plaintiffs, defendants and victims need timely resolution of their cases. He said he’s a judge who upholds the law.

    “We don’t need judges with agendas, and I don’t have an agenda,” Bryan said. “I call balls and strikes, I look at the issues and the facts and call them.”

    Although court administration is up to the chief justice, associate justices and their case loads are influenced by the lack of funds because of declining budgets. “It affects the amount of staff, cases being timely decided, so we have a vested interest in the budgets we have,” Bryan said.

    The winner of the March 13 primary will be on the Nov. 6 ballot, but with no Democratic opposition, and will take office in January.

    “I can hit the ground running on day one,” Bryan said. “I’ve done the process, know the system.”

    Jones said the judicial system is challenged by declining General Fund appropriations that have affected court clerks who do the court’s paperwork.

    She said she has 21 years of courtroom experience as both an attorney trying and defending criminal, civil and tort cases, and as a circuit judge. “It’s important for the Supreme Court to have hands-on working knowledge (in) evidence and managing documents and knowing what goes on … in actual court experience,” she said.

    Jones said she spent four years as a prosecutor and then 17 as a sole practitioner, “everything that a general practice would do.”

    As an assistant district attorney, Jones said, she wrote the current DUI law that makes a fourth DUI charge a felony. She also authored a law making rape with an object a Class A felony.

    Jones said she’s not accepting political action committee or special interest money to finance her campaign. “I do not like the fact that special interests would influence justices on the Supreme Court in any way,” she said.

    http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/...9759?p=3&tc=pg

  5. #15
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    What is the status of the LI lawsuit for Alabama? When might the legal issues with their injection protocal be resolved?

  6. #16
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    Ala. lawmaker seeks to end death penalty

    Once again, an Alabama state senator plans to go after the death penalty. So far all efforts to end capital punishment have gone nowhere in the state legislature. Selma Sen. Hank Sanders says it's a practice that needs to come to an end.

    "Capital punishment in Alabama as in other places really has been something reserved for poor people," Sanders said.

    Sanders is pushing several bills. One to eliminate capital punishment, one to put a moratorium on capital punishment, limit the death penalty for mentally challenged, juvenile offenders and restrict judges' sentencing authority.

    "We spend a lot of money on capital punishment in Alabama. I don't have the figures. We have spent a whole lot of money on so-called capital crime. I think we can do better," Sanders said.

    Alabama voters remain split over the controversial issue.

    "African Americans in this state receive a lot more and quicker than others. So for the state of Alabama I think should be outlawed," Wanda Spillers said.

    "I'm pretty conservative about it. I think it should be left as it is. There should be serious punishment or a plan for serious crime," Matthew Sensintaffer said.

    Some Alabama lawmakers tell FOX6 News they don't believe the legislature will end capital punishment. Still, Sanders is not giving up. He says it's too important of issue not to have a serious debate this year. He also points to a large number of inmates sitting on Alabama's death row.

    "Either we have more bad people in Alabama or there is a something wrong with our system. I don't think there are more bad people in Alabama," Sanders said.

    http://www.myfoxal.com/story/2050629...-death-penalty
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  7. #17
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    Ala. Senate Passes Bill Expanding Death Penalty Law

    The Alabama Senate has voted to expand Alabama's death penalty law to include a defendant who kills a person who had a protective order issued against the defendant.

    The bill got approved by the Senate 29-0 Tuesday. The bill's sponsor, Republican Sen. Clay Scofield of Guntersville, said earlier the legislation was inspired by the killing of a friend's sister, Kelley Rutledge Johnston, in 2000 after she had taken out a protective order against her estranged husband. The bill gives prosecutors the opportunity to bring a capital murder charge rather than a murder charge, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

    The bill now goes to the House for consideration with 4 meeting days remaining in the legislative session.

    (Source: The Associated Press)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #18
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    Legal Challenges continue to slow Alabama Executions

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Andrew Lackey's execution late last month was the first in Alabama since 2011, when the state had six executions. Overall, the pace of executions has slowed in the state as challenges over issues such as the drugs and protocol used mount.

    Attorneys say courts allowed the execution of Lackey — convicted in the 2011 shooting and beating death of an 80-year-old Limestone County man — to proceed July 25 by lethal injection mainly because he had dropped his appeals, and they expect legal challenges to continue to slow the pace of Alabama executions.

    A leading anti-death penalty attorney, Bryan Stevenson of Montgomery, said it's doubtful additional executions will occur in the near future unless the death row inmate has dropped the appeals process.

    "There are outstanding questions about the execution protocol," Stevenson said.

    Previously, Alabama was using sodium thiopental as a key drug in the protocol. After a nationwide shortage of the drug, the state's supply was seized by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency in 2011. At that point the state began using pentobarbital in a three-drug protocol. That process has been challenged, but Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw said there are no pending cases involving the current drug protocol.

    Attorneys questioned the effectiveness of the drugs after Alabama inmate Eddie Powell appeared to be awake even after the drugs were administered.

    Much of the slowdown in executions was caused by the case of death row inmate Tommy Arthur, who has been in prison for about 30 years for the 1982 contract killing of Troy Wicker at Wicker's his residence in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

    Arthur's is a complicated, lengthy case that has been lingering in state and federal courts for decades. Crenshaw said the case is awaiting a ruling from U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller on a challenge of the drug protocol used in execution. Arthur's attorneys have argued that when the state switched from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital, it was a substantial change that needed to be approved by the courts. Crenshaw said that change is still pending before Fuller.

    Crenshaw said he doesn't believe the drugs used in executions are causing the delays any longer — he said the courts have found "no problem" with them.

    But Crenshaw said he doesn't know when the next Alabama execution will be carried out and acknowledged that the pace has slowed because of legal challenges.

    "I can't predict what the courts will rule," he said.

    Stevenson attributes much of the delay to questions over execution protocol.

    "I think there have been problems with some executions carried out in Alabama," Stevenson said. That includes the July 16, 2011, execution of Powell, charged with rape, sodomy and murder in the death of a 70-year-old Tuscaloosa County woman. During Powell's execution, he appeared to wake up and look around before he died. Powell didn't appear to be in pain, but his case has been cited in death penalty appeals.

    Stevenson also cited a problem with the state's death penalty law, in that it allows judges to overrule a jury's recommendation of life without parole.

    Democratic State Sen. Hank Sanders of Selma, a death penalty opponent, said he thinks the current slowdown in executions is a good thing, but he would like to see them stopped all together.

    "I think there are serious problems with many of the executions we carry out in Alabama," Sanders said.

    http://www.phadp.org/?q=node/377

  9. #19
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    Attorney general, DA's back bill to speed up death penalty appeals

    Attorney General Luther Strange and state prosecutors are backing a proposal to speed up death penalty appeals, a review process that they said can now stretch out for decades.

    "It's important for the victims that justice is done and done in a timely basis. We have people on our death row today that have been there since 1982," Strange said.

    The attorney general and prosecutors discussed the proposed legislation with members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees during a joint meeting of the committees. The bill will be introduced in the session that begins Jan. 14.

    The proposal would streamline the appeals process so direct appeals of trial issues and Rule 32 appeals -- post-conviction appeals that look at other issues such as the trial lawyer's competence – would run on a dual track. Currently, Rule 32 appeals don't begin until after those first direct appeals have been exhausted.

    There have been 55 executions since Alabama brought back the death penalty in 1983. The average stay on death row is a little over 16 years, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.

    The longest-serving death row inmate in Alabama has been there for about 34 years. Arthur Lee Giles, who was sentenced to death in 1979 when he was 19 years old.

    The inmates currently on death row have been there an average of 13 years.

    Madison County District Attorney Robert L Broussard said he estimated the streamlined appeal process would cut the time between sentencing and execution down to 10 years.

    Broussard said the Alabama proposal is similar to what has been done in Texas. Strange said its also similar to the process in Virginia.

    Broussard said he believes it is unfair to victims' families to wait 15 years or more for a death sentence to be carried out and to go through years of court proceedings.

    "You talk about cruel and unusual punishment. You are dragging them into the courthouse 15 years after the fact on frivolous motions," Broussard said.

    The streamlined process would also be good for defendants, he argued.

    "It absolutely guarantees the rights of the accused and in some ways increases the rights of the accused because everything is done in a more timely fashion," Broussard said.

    However, Birmingham Lisa Borden, who does pro bono legal work focused on representation of indigent death row inmates in post-conviction proceedings, vehemently disagreed.

    Borden said the change might increase the pace of executions.

    "But you certainly cut down on the fairness and the justice," Borden said

    Borden said a defendant might not know all of the issues for a Rule 32 appeal until those first tier appeals are exhausted.

    Borden said there are other issues that drag out appeals such as inmates having no right to counsel during those post-conviction appeals. Defendants are also often overcharged with capital cases, she argued.

    "Any poor person who commits a murder gets charged with a capital offense,"Borden said.

    http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/11/atto...back_bill.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #20
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    Two Supreme Court justices criticize Alabama death-penalty overrides

    Two U.S. Supreme Court justices say the time has come to take another look at whether state judges should be able to override a jury's verdict and impose the death penalty — citing 95 cases in Alabama where that's happened.

    Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor say Alabama judges "who are elected in partisan proceedings, appear to be have succumbed to electoral pressures" in imposing capital punishment when a jury has recommended life in prison.

    Of the 31 states that allow capital punishment, only three permit a judge to override a jury's sentencing decision — Alabama, Delaware and Florida.

    The last time it happened in Florida was 1999, and the one time it happened in Delaware, the sentence was overturned on appeal. Meanwhile, state court judges in Alabama have imposed death sentences contrary to a jury's verdict 95 times.

    "Alabama has become a clear outlier," the justices said.

    Sotomayor's and Breyer's strikingly explicit criticism came in a dissent from the high court's denial of an appeal by Mario Dion Woodward, 39, who was convicted of murdering a Montgomery, Ala., police officer in 2006.

    The jury voted 8 to 4 to send Woodward to prison for life without parole, but the judge held a separate proceeding, heard additional evidence and sentenced him to death.

    In explaining why they believe electoral pressures influence Alabama judges, the dissent cites the experience of one judge who imposed death in cases when juries recommended life.

    The judge, they wrote, "campaigned by running several advertisements voicing his support for capital punishment" and named some of the defendants he sentenced to death.

    In other cases, Alabama judges have given no meaningful explanation for their actions, Sotomayor and Breyer said in their dissent.

    One judge, who sentenced to death a defendant with an IQ of 65, said "the sociological literature suggests Gypsies intentionally test low on standard IQ tests." Another said, "If I had not imposed the death sentence, I would have sentenced three black people to death and no white people."

    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...alty-overrides
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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