Alabama judge opposed to death penalty set for ethics trial
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama judge accused of violating judicial rules with her opposition to the death penalty went on trial Monday on ethics charges that could result in her removal from office.
Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd, who was suspended with pay after investigators accused her of wrongdoing in April, became embroiled in the debate over capital punishment and issued erroneous decisions that violated orders by higher courts, according to charges filed with the Court of the Judiciary, which hears complaints against state judges.
Todd, who ruled the state’s capital punishment law unconstitutional five years ago, made public comments and took actions that showed she was improperly embroiled in the issue and lacked the “detachment and neutrality” required of a judge, alleged the Judicial Inquiry Commission, which investigates complaints and files charges.
“Judge Todd abandoned her judicial role to become an advocate,” commission attorney Elizabeth Bern told the nine-judge panel in opening arguments.
Todd also was charged with improperly barring a prosecutor from handling cases in her court, questioning a defense lawyer about political contributions and conducting her own investigations.
Todd’s attorney, Emory Anthony, said the judge followed her understanding of the law in ruling the state’s old death penalty sentencing scheme unconstitutional. He suggested the case was fueled by dislike of Todd in the district attorney’s office.
“The only thing she attempted to do was her job,” Anthony told the court.
The charges date back years and involve matters that should have been considered by appeals courts, not judicial investigations, Todd’s defense claimed in court documents. The allegations amount to a violation of Todd’s First Amendment rights, the defense argued.
“Punishment for legal rulings or as a prescription on freedom of speech are not the intended uses of judicial disciplinary powers,” the defense said in written arguments.
Judicial investigators said the state’s right to file appeals didn’t mean additional actions weren’t required against Todd. They referred to her in a nearly 100-page complaint as “a judge who continued to fail to respect and follow clear directives and rulings of the appellate courts — even after the law was set forth in pleadings submitted to her.”
Todd is a Democrat who first took office in 2013. The complaint that resulted in judicial ethics charges was filed by a former Republican district attorney, court documents showed.
Todd, who handles cases in Alabama’s most populous county around Birmingham, made national news in 2016 when she barred prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against four men charged in three killings. She questioned a state law in place at the time that allowed judges to override jury’s recommendations of life without parole and sentence people to death. Since then, the law was changed and judges must follow the jurors’ suggestion.
In her 28-page ruling, Todd called the previous practice a “life-to-death override epidemic” and questioned Alabama’s judicial elections, which are held along partisan lines.
“There is a time and place for diplomacy and subtlety,” Todd said. “That time and place has been expunged by the dire state of the justice system in Alabama. It is clear, from here on the front line, that Alabama’s judiciary has unequivocally been hijacked by partisan interests and unlawful legislative neglect.”
The complaint against Todd said she went too far.
“Despite her arguable intent to accomplish what she perceived as noble purposes, (for example) elimination of the death penalty (at least in its current form), of selective prosecution, of racial discrimination in imprisonment, etc., her intent to achieve a noble purpose does not excuse apparent disregard of the law or her failure to maintain competence in the law,” judicial prosecutors charged.
AP writer Jay Reeves contributed from Birmingham.
Israeli soldiers fire on family car in occupied West Bank, killing 4
Israeli soldiers fired on a car carrying a family in the northern West Bank, killing four people including two children, the Palestinian Authority's Health Ministry said.
U.S. military names six killed in plane crash as Iran war enters third week
The conflict in the Middle East has entered a third week, with Israel announcing a barrage of new strikes on western Iran on Sunday, while the U.S. defense department released the names of six service members who died when their military refueling aircraft crashed.
Alabama poised to drastically overhaul utility regulation. Will it lower electric bills?
The Alabama Senate unanimously voted to expand the public service commission, and create a Secretary of Energy to address rising electricity prices. A bill in the House would go even further, requiring rate case hearings and limiting utility profits.
Acclaimed 20th century philosopher Jürgen Habermas dies at 96
Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas was a world-renowned thinker on modernity and democracy who helped shape German post-war and post-reunification political discourse.
Why the Chicago Bears could be moving to Indiana
While Illinois is trying to keep the team in Chicago's suburbs, Indiana lawmakers are offering a plan to finance a new stadium
Pentagon tightens controls over Stars and Stripes after calling it “woke”
The new rules for the independent military newspaper are the Defense Department's latest effort to put extraordinary restrictions on journalists covering the agency.
