According to a new report released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), struc­tur­al and pro­ce­dur­al flaws in Alabama’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem stack the deck against fair tri­als and appro­pri­ate sen­tenc­ing for those fac­ing the death penal­ty. The report, Broken Justice: The Death Penalty in Alabama, details unfair and dis­crim­i­na­to­ry prac­tices in the state’s admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty. It con­cen­trates on six major areas of con­cern: inad­e­quate defense, pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, judi­cial over­ride of jury rec­om­men­da­tions, exe­cu­tion of the men­tal­ly retard­ed, racial dis­crim­i­na­tion and geo­graph­ic dis­par­i­ties. Among the report’s key find­ings are the following:

  • Lack of a statewide pub­lic defend­er sys­tem in Alabama cre­ates wide dis­par­i­ties among cir­cuits in their stan­dards of indi­gent defense, or rep­re­sen­ta­tion of defen­dants who can’t afford pri­vate legal counsel.
  • Alabama is among the few states that still allow judges in cap­i­tal tri­als to over­ride jury rec­om­men­da­tions for less­er sen­tences and impose the death penalty.
  • Eighty-one per­cent of those exe­cut­ed in Alabama since 1976 were con­vict­ed of killing white peo­ple, yet only 35 per­cent of all mur­ders in the state involve white victims.
  • Between 1973 and 2003, nine­teen Alabama death penal­ty cas­es were reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct.
  • The 2002 U.S. Supreme Court deci­sion pro­hibit­ing exe­cu­tion of men­tal­ly retard­ed offend­ers left it to the states to define men­tal retar­da­tion. In fail­ing to issue its own def­i­n­i­tion, Alabama places men­tal­ly retard­ed inmates at risk of unconstitutional execution.

Based on its find­ings, the ACLU has rec­om­mend­ed at tem­po­rary halt to exe­cu­tions in Alabama to allow a thor­ough review of the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. A July 2005 poll by the Capital Survey Research Center found that 57 per­cent of Alabamians would sup­port such a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions.

Alabama has the sixth ‑high­est exe­cu­tion rate and the sixth-high­est death-sen­tenc­ing rate in the nation. There is no statewide pub­lic defend­er sys­tem, and 95 per­cent of those on death row are unable to afford rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Five inno­cent peo­ple have been released from Alabama’s death row since 1976.

(ACLU Press Release, ​“New Report Finds Fatal Flaws in Alabama’s Death Penalty,” October 20, 2005). Read the report. See Representation, Race, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Arbitrariness, and Innocence.

Citation Guide