Alabama this week passed a new law that gives juries the final call regarding whether to use the death penalty in capital murder cases.
In her first week on the job, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law on Tuesday that eliminates the judicial override of juries’ recommendations regarding death sentences. Before the law was approved, Alabama was the only state that allowed judges to supersede juries in imposing the death penalty. More than 100 people were sentenced to death since 1976 as a result of a judicial override, according to Alabama Media Group.
The change in Alabama law follows the controversial execution of Ronald Bert Smith Jr., who was convicted in 1995 of killing convenience store clerk Casey Wilson. The jury at Smith’s trial recommended life without parole by a vote of 7- 5, but the judge ordered a death sentence because of the judge’s view that Smith committed an “execution-style slaying.” The 11th Circuit Court denied Smith’s appeal, in which he challenged lethal injection as the method of execution as cruel and unusual under the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.
Smith’s case made its way to the Supreme Court, where Justice Clarence Thomas issued multiple stays of his execution while the high court reviewed Smith’s request. The Supreme Court, then stocked with just eight justices, split evenly 4-4 on Smith’s case and allowed the execution to proceed late last year. Justice Stephen Breyer has since issued several calls for the high court to reconsider the legality of the death penalty.
