Capital punishment in Alabama

Legal process

When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and at least 10 jurors must concur.

In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a retrial happens before another jury.

In 2023, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that, when a condemned person appeals, the appellate court does not have to actively look for errors in the original judgment and only has to consider constitutional violations if the objection was already raised at trial. Previously, through 2022, appellate courts had been required to search for errors in the original judgment and to consider any constitutional violations that may have occurred at trial, regardless of whether the trial lawyer had objected.

For cases prior to 2017, the sole determinant of the sentence was the sentencing judge who had the authority to override the jury's recommendation provided it was given appropriate weight. Prospectively, from 2017, the judge must abide by the verdict of the jury. The law is not retroactive. A report in May 2024 revealed that Alabama has 30 condemned prisoners who were still facing death sentences received due to judicial override prior to its abolition.

The power of clemency belongs to the Governor of Alabama.

The method of execution is lethal injection, unless the condemned requests electrocution or nitrogen hypoxia. If the selected method (whether chosen by the offender or by default) is found unconstitutional, state statutes provide the use of "any constitutional method of execution", which would likely include hanging, the gas chamber or firing squad.

In February 2023, following a review of failed lethal injections, Governor Kay Ivey said executions would resume. The first occurred on July 21, 2023.

Capital crimes

The following kinds of murder are punishable by death in Alabama:

1. Murder by the defendant during a kidnapping in the first degree or an attempt thereof committed by the defendant.
2. Murder by the defendant during a robbery in the first degree. There is no attempted robbery in Alabama because it's a crime against the person and not the property. In most cases an attempted statue is Ala. Code § 13A-4-2 and decreases the crime one degree.
3. Murder by the defendant during a rape in the first or second degree or an attempt thereof committed by the defendant; or murder by the defendant during sodomy in the first or second degree or an attempt thereof committed by the defendant.
4. Murder by the defendant during a burglary in the first or second degree or an attempt thereof committed by the defendant.
5. Murder of any police officer, sheriff, deputy, state trooper, federal law enforcement officer, or any other state or federal peace officer of any kind, or prison or jail guard, while such officer or guard is on duty, regardless of whether the defendant knew or should have known the victim was an officer or guard on duty, or because of some official or job-related act or performance of such officer or guard.
6. Murder committed while the defendant is under sentence of life imprisonment.
7. Murder done for a pecuniary or other valuable consideration or pursuant to a contract or for hire.
8. Murder committed during sexual abuse in the first or second degree or an attempt thereof committed by the defendant.
9. Murder committed during arson in the first or second degree committed by the defendant; or murder by the defendant by means of explosives or explosion.
10. Murder wherein two or more persons are murdered by the defendant by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct.
11. Murder committed when the victim is a state or federal public official or former public official and the murder stems from or is caused by or is related to his official position, act, or capacity.
12. Murder committed during the act of unlawfully assuming control of any aircraft by use of threats or force with intent to obtain any valuable consideration for the release of said aircraft or any passenger or crewmen thereon or to direct the route or movement of said aircraft, or otherwise exert control over said aircraft.
13. Murder committed by an offender convicted of any other murder in the 20 years preceding the crime which constitutes the capital crime under Alabama law at the time.
14. Murder is related to the capacity or role of the victim as a witness.
15. Murder of a victim less than 14 years of age.
16. Murder committed by or through the use of a deadly weapon fired or otherwise used from outside a dwelling while the victim is in a dwelling.
17. Murder committed by or through the use of a deadly weapon while the victim is in a vehicle.
18. Murder committed by or through the use of a deadly weapon fired or otherwise used within or from a vehicle.
19. Murder by the defendant where a court had issued a protective order for the victim against the defendant.

History

Between 1812 and 1965, 708 people were executed in Alabama. Until 1927, hanging was the primary method of execution, although one person was put to death by firing squad.

In addition to murder, capital crimes in Alabama formerly included rape, arson, and robbery. According to the Alabama Department of Corrections, 31 persons were executed by the state for crimes other than murder - including rape, robbery and burglary - between 1927 and 1959. In Kennedy v. Louisiana, the U.S. Supreme Court has essentially eliminated the death penalty for any crime at the state level except murder.

The 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case Furman v. Georgia, requiring a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty, established a de facto moratorium on capital punishment across the United States. That moratorium remained until July 2, 1976, when Gregg v. Georgia decided how states could impose death sentences without violating the Eighth Amendment's ban against cruel and unusual punishment. Alabama passed legislation reinstating use of the death penalty on March 25, 1976, when Alabama's legislature passed, and Governor George Wallace signed, a new death penalty statute. No execution under this law was carried out until 1983.

Holman Correctional Facility has a male death row that originally had a capacity of 20, but was expanded in the summer of 2000 with the addition of 200 single cells in the segregation unit. The William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility has a male death row with a capacity of 24. Donaldson's death row houses prisoners who need to stay in the Birmingham judicial district. Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women houses the female death row. All executions occur at Holman.

In February 2018, Alabama carried out the botched attempted execution of Doyle Hamm. During the execution attempt, executioners attempted for nearly three hours to insert an IV that could be used to administer the lethal injection drugs. In the process, the execution team punctured Hamm's bladder and femoral artery, causing significant bleeding.

From 1983 to , Alabama has executed 81 people. As of February 2025, Alabama had 157 inmates on death row, the 4th highest number in the US. Since 1976, only two death row inmates were granted clemency and had their death sentences commuted to life: outgoing Governor Fob James commuted Judith Ann Neelley's death sentence to life in prison in January 1999. Another was in February 2025, when Robin Dion Myers, who was convicted of the 1991 murder of Ludie Mae Tucker, had his death sentence commuted to life without parole by Governor Kay Ivey after the Alabama Supreme Court authorized the setting of an execution date.

In 2016, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd ruled that the Alabama capital murder provision allowing judges to issue the death penalty by overriding jury recommendations for life without parole to be unconstitutional. In 2020, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary charged Todd with an ethics complaint lodged by the Judicial Inquiry Commission, which accused the Birmingham judge of using her position to oppose and override the state death penalty. Todd was suspended without pay for 90 days and then permitted to return to her duties as a judge.

On September 22, 2022, Alabama planned to execute Alan Eugene Miller but canceled the execution after failing to find a suitable vein. On November 17, 2022, Alabama similarly was unable to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith because the state corrections staff were unable to find a suitable vein. Following several botched executions, Governor Kay Ivey paused all executions until July 2023. Smith's execution was rescheduled and carried out on January 25, 2024; it was the nation's first use of nitrogen gas as an execution method. Smith had requested this method.

In late 2024, Matt Simpson, an Alabama politician, proposed a Death penalty bill for child rapists, that could ultimately challenge the precedent of Kennedy v. Louisiana. The bill is similar to the laws passed in Florida and Tennessee. The Alabama House committee approved the bill in February 2025, and it passed by an 86-5 vote (in addition to nine abstentions). The Bill was passed on to the Alabama Senate.

References

References

1. Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza. (2014-07-27). "With Judges Overriding Death Penalty Cases, Alabama Is An Outlier".
2. "State Execution Rates (Through 2020)".
3. Beyerle, Dana. (February 21, 2004). "Juries to sentence capital murderers". [[The Tuscaloosa News]].
4. "SB 16 To amend Sections 13A-5-45, 13A-5-46, and 13A-5-47, Code of Alabama 1975, relating to capital cases and to the determination of the sentence by courts; to prohibit a court from overriding a jury verdict.". legislature.state.al.us.
5. Hrynkiw, Ivana. (2023-01-18). "Alabama appellate courts don't have to spot 'plain errors' in death row cases".
6. (2017-04-11). "Alabama ends death penalty by judicial override". [[Associated Press]] at [[WRBL]].
7. (May 1, 2024). "These 30 Alabama Death Row inmates are waiting to die because judges overruled juries". Alabama Local News.
8. "SECTION 124 -Authority of governor to remit fines and forfeitures and grant reprieves, paroles, commutations of sentence and pardons; board of pardons; report by governor to legislature; pardons in cases of felonies and offenses involving moral turpitude". legislature.state.al.us.
9. "Section 15-18-82.1 - Method of execution; election of execution by electrocution; constitutionality.". legislature.state.al.us.
10. (2023-02-25). "Alabama to resume executions after multiple failed injections prompted system review, governor says".
11. Gattis, Paul. (July 21, 2023). "Alabama Death Row inmate James Barber executed for 2001 Madison County murder". al.com.
12. Code of Alabama § 13A-5-49
13. "Executions in Alabama".
14. ''Kennedy v. Louisiana'' 554 U.S. 407 (2008)
15. "Annual Report Fiscal Year 2003". Alabama Department of Corrections. 33/84.
16. "Annual Report Fiscal Year 2003". Alabama Department of Corrections. 21/84.
17. "Facility Information".
18. "Annual Report Fiscal Year 2003". Alabama Department of Corrections. 45/84.
19. Segura, Liliana. (2018-03-03). "Another Failed Execution: the Torture of Doyle Lee Hamm".
20. Cohen, Roger. (2018-02-27). "Opinion {{!}} Death Penalty Madness in Alabama". The New York Times.
21. Connor, Tracy. (26 February 2018). "Lawyer describes aborted execution attempt for inmate as 'torture'".
22. "Executions". Alabama Dept. of Corrections.
23. "Facts About The Death Penalty".
24. "Clemency". Deathpenaltyinfo.org.
25. (February 28, 2025). "Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey commutes death sentence of Robin ‘Rocky’ Myers". Alabama Local News.
26. (February 28, 2025). "Alabama governor commutes death sentence of man convicted for 1991 murder". The Guardian.
27. (February 28, 2025). "Alabama governor commutes death row inmate Rocky Myers’ sentence to life in prison". Associated Press.
28. [https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2016/03/jeffco_judge_rules_alabama_dea.html "JeffCo judge: Alabama death penalty sentence scheme unconstitutional"] {{Webarchive. link. (2022-02-15 by Kent Faulk, ''Birmingham Real-Time News'', March 9, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2021.)
29. [https://www.al.com/news/2021/12/jefferson-county-judge-tracie-todd-expected-to-present-defense-today-in-ethics-trial.html "Jefferson County Judge Tracie Todd presents defense in ethics trial"] by Mike Cason, ''Birmingham Real-Time News'', December 1, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
30. [https://www.al.com/news/2021/11/ethics-trial-of-birmingham-judge-on-hold-until-dec-1.html "Ethics trial on hold for Birmingham judge who ruled Alabama death penalty law unconstitutional"] {{Webarchive. link. (2021-12-01 by Mike Cason, ''Birmingham Real-Time News'', November 16, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2021.)
31. [https://www.al.com/news/2021/12/jefferson-county-judge-tracie-todd-suspended-without-pay-for-ethics-violations.html Jefferson County Judge Tracie Todd suspended without pay for ethics violations] {{Webarchive. link. (2022-05-29 Mike Cason, al.com, December 3, 2021)
32. (2022-09-23). "Execution halted at last minute when Ala. prison staff can't find vein". [[The Washington Post]].
33. Urell, Aaryn. (2022-11-18). "Second Man Survives Alabama Execution Attempt".
34. Associated Press. (2022-11-21). "Alabama is pausing executions after a 3rd failed lethal injection". NPR.
35. (2024-01-25). "Alabama puts Kenneth Smith to death in first execution with nitrogen gas". Washington Post.
36. Tucker, Devon M. Sayers, Emma. (2023-11-09). "Alabama sets date for first-ever US execution of death row inmate by nitrogen gas in 2024, governor says".
37. Andone, Dakin. (25 January 2024). "Alabama puts to death Kenneth Smith in first known execution using nitrogen gas".
38. Erica Thomas. (6 October 2024). "State Rep. Simpson pre-files bill allowing death penalty for child rape, sodomy". 1819news.com.
39. Alexander Willis. (8 October 2024). "The death penalty is not used enough;' Alabama lawmaker pushes for death sentence for child rapists". aldailynews.com.
40. Brad Gunther. (8 October 2024). "Alabama bill would make certain rape cases eligible for the death penalty". mynbc15.com.
41. Chapoco, Ralph. (February 5, 2025). "Alabama House committee approves bill imposing death penalty for child sexual assault". Alabama Reflector.
42. (February 11, 2025). "Alabama House passes bill expanding death penalty to child sexual assault". Alabama Reflector.