The Supreme Court has turned away an appeal from a 76-year-old Alabama man who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for possessing less than three pounds of marijuana that he said he grew for personal use. Lawyers for Lee Carroll Brooker said the stiff sentence under the state’s habitual offender law violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and…
An appellate court has rejected indicted House Speaker Mike Hubbard’s appeal of pretrial decisions in his ethics case. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday issued a one-page order denying the request to review the appeal. In a heavily redacted court filing, defense lawyer Bill Baxley said the special grand jury’s term had expired two months before the indictment…
Alabama’s attorney general is asking the state court of criminal appeals to vacate a judge’s ruling that declared Alabama’s death penalty sentencing system unconstitutional. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said in a petition filed Thursday that Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Tracie Todd doesn’t have the authority to prevent the state from seeking the death penalty against defendants who are…
