Alabama Judge Rules Capital Sentencing Scheme Unconstitutional

Jefferson County, Alabama Circuit Judge Tracie Todd (pic­tured) ruled on March 3 that Alabama’s cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dure vio­lates the U.S. Constitution. Judge Todd barred the death penal­ty for four cap­i­tal mur­der defen­dants, say­ing that Alabama’s use of judi­cial over­ride vio­lates the Sixth Amendment. 

Under Alabama’s sys­tem, at least 10 jurors must agree in order to rec­om­mend a death sen­tence, but a judge can over­ride the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion and impose death even if the jury rec­om­mend­ed a life sen­tence. Because of this prac­tice, Judge Todd said, ​“Alabama has become a clear out­lier.” She said the death penal­ty, ​“is being imposed in a whol­ly unconstitutional manner.” 

In read­ing her rul­ing from the bench, the judge not­ed that Alabama has exe­cut­ed more defen­dants than states five times its size and ques­tioned whether the par­ti­san elec­tion of judges cre­at­ed a dan­ger of judges impos­ing the death penal­ty due to political pressure. 

A 2011 report by the Equal Justice Initiative doc­u­ment­ed the effects of Alabama judi­cial over­rides of jury life rec­om­men­da­tions. More recent­ly, a study by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Law and Justice at Harvard found that more than three-quar­ters of the death sen­tences imposed in Alabama in the past 5 years involved non-unanimous juries. 

Alabama, Delaware, and Florida are the only states that per­mit a judge to impose the death penal­ty after the jury has not unan­i­mous­ly recommended death.