Activists want some Alabama death row inmates to be resentenced
Alabama state Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, speaks at a rally for legislation that would allow about 30 death row inmates, who were sentenced to death by judges despite a jury’s recommendation of life imprisonment, to receive new sentences, , Thursday, March 21, 2024, in Montgomery, Ala. Alabama in 2017 ended the practice of allowing judges to override sentencing recommendations in death penalty cases, but the change was not retroactive. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
Activists are pushing for legislation that would allow about 30 Alabama inmates to be resentenced because they were sentenced to death despite a jury’s recommendation of a life sentence.
In 2017, Alabama became the last state to abandon the practice of allowing judges to override a jury’s sentence recommendation in death penalty cases. The change was not retroactive.
Activists held a rally Thursday outside the Alabama State House urging lawmakers to make the judicial override ban retroactive and allow those inmates an opportunity to be resentenced. The bill is before the House Judiciary Committee.
“Justice demands us to afford those individuals who are still on death row by judicial override the opportunity to be resentenced,” Rep. Chris England, the bill sponsor, said.
Alabama this year became the first state to carry out an execution with nitrogen gas when it executed Kenneth Smith. Smith was one of two men convicted and sentenced to die in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett.
After Smith’s initial 1989 conviction, the jury had recommended a death sentence, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. He was retried and convicted again in 1996. The jury that time recommended a life sentence by a vote of 11-1, but a judge overrode the recommendation and sentenced Smith to death.
“Eleven people on his jury said he should still be here today. Eleven. One judge was all it took to override that decision,” Smith’s wife, Deanna Smith, said.
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