judges
Investigation Finds Most Judges Who Break Laws Or Ethics Rules Don’t Lose Their Jobs
A recent investigation by Reuters also finds Alabama's system for tackling judicial misconduct makes it harder to discipline judges than in most other states.
Giving Juries The Last Word On The Death Sentence
In Alabama, nearly 1 in 5 people on death row were sentenced to death through judicial override, according to the Equal Justice Initiative. Judicial override allows judges to impose the death penalty after a jury returns a life verdict, and Alabama is the last state to allow it. Critics have called override unreliable and arbitrary. Now there's a bipartisan effort in the legislature that could abolish the procedure.
Judge in Jefferson County Rules Alabama’s Death Penalty Statute Unconstitutional
In January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hurst v. Florida that Florida’s death penalty statute was unconstitutional. Alabama and Delaware are the only other states with similar statutes that require a judge – not a jury – to make the final decision about life of death in a capital case. Attorney General Luther Strange has held that the Supreme Court ruling does not apply to Alabama. But today one judge in Jefferson County disagreed. Ruling that the death can’t currently be imposed in Alabama.
Alabama Judge Nomination Sparks Tension
Several prominent lawyers, judges, and U.S. Representative Terri Sewell held a press conference on Saturday in downtown Birmingham, in support of Judge Abdul Kallon’s nomination to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
