Alabama Governor Grants Clemency to Robin ​‘Rocky’ Myers, Sparing Him from Execution

On February 28, 2025, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Robin ​‘Rocky’ Dion Myers to Life Without Parole (LWOP). Myers was con­vict­ed in the 1991 mur­der of Ludie Mae Tucker in Decatur, Alabama. His jury rec­om­mend­ed that he be sen­tenced to LWOP, but the judge in his case over­rode the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion and hand­ed down a death sen­tence. The prac­tice of judi­cial over­ride was abol­ished in Alabama in 2017. In her state­ment, Gov. Ivey repeat­ed her belief that ​“the death penal­ty is just pun­ish­ment for society’s most seri­ous crimes” but she also not­ed that in Mr. Myer’s case, she had ​“enough ques­tions about [his] guilt that I can­not move for­ward with executing him.” 

In sup­port of her deci­sion, Gov. Ivey not­ed that no evi­dence direct­ly link­ing Mr. Myers to the scene of the crime had been found, and that eye­wit­ness­es to the crime nev­er iden­ti­fied Mr. Myers as the assailant. While uncon­vinced of his inno­cence, Gov. Ivey said she was also not con­vinced of his guilt. A for­mer juror in the case, Mae Puckett, came for­ward in 2023 with her belief that Mr. Myers was not guilty: ​“They nev­er placed him in the house that night … I know he is inno­cent.” This was only the sec­ond grant of clemen­cy in a death penal­ty case in Alabama in the mod­ern death penal­ty era. The last time any­one was grant­ed clemen­cy in Alabama was in 1999.

While Gov. Ivey was reluc­tant to declare Mr. Myers inno­cent, pos­si­ble inno­cence plays a large role in many clemen­cy deci­sions nation­wide. A recent review by DPI of the pub­lic rea­sons giv­en by those autho­rized to grant clemen­cy found that pos­si­ble inno­cence was cit­ed in 26% of all indi­vid­ual clemen­cy cas­es and was one of the top four rea­sons cit­ed nation­wide. Other fre­quent­ly cit­ed rea­sons for clemen­cy include mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors (cit­ed in 31% of all cas­es), com­par­a­tive cul­pa­bil­i­ty (which occurs when there are mul­ti­ple defen­dants involved and yet only one is charged cap­i­tal­ly: cit­ed in 29% of all cas­es); and offi­cial mis­con­duct or unfair legal prac­tices (cit­ed in 23% of all cas­es). NB: many cas­es cit­ed more than one factor.

Grants of clemen­cy are still rel­a­tive­ly rare in the mod­ern death penal­ty era, whose start is marked by the Supreme Court’s 1972 deci­sion in Furman v. Georgia. Only about four per­cent of those sen­tenced to death (366/​8914) since Furman have had their sen­tences com­mut­ed. Half of those clemen­cies came from a sin­gle mass grant of clemen­cy in Illinois in 2003, when out­go­ing Governor George Ryan com­mut­ed the sen­tences of all 167 peo­ple on the state’s death row and par­doned an addi­tion­al four indi­vid­u­als. 2024 was the sec­ond-high­est year on record for grants of clemen­cy, with for­mer President Biden com­mut­ing 37 fed­er­al death sen­tences and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper com­mut­ing 15 sen­tences to LWOP. Individual com­mu­ta­tions, like the one for Mr. Myers, are even rar­er: less than one per­cent of those sen­tenced to death nation­wide since Furman have received an indi­vid­ual grant of clemen­cy, and less than half of one per­cent (2/​479) of the indi­vid­u­als sen­tenced to death in Alabama have been granted clemency. 

Grants of clemen­cy rel­a­tive to exe­cu­tion rates vary great­ly from state to state. Because of the mass grant of clemen­cy in Illinois in 2003, the num­ber of indi­vid­u­als grant­ed clemen­cy far out­strips the num­ber of exe­cu­tions in the state since 1972 (see map). In con­trast, in Texas, the state with the most exe­cu­tions in the mod­ern era, only 37 indi­vid­u­als, or just over half a per­cent (37/​590), have had their sentences commuted. 

Alabama’s last grant of clemen­cy came in January 1999, when Alabama Governor Fob James, who had just been vot­ed out of office, grant­ed clemen­cy to Judith Ann Neelley, who had been con­vict­ed in 1983 at age 18 of killing a 13-year-old. The jury in her case had rec­om­mend­ed LWOP, but the judge hand­ed down a death sen­tence. Ms.Neelley’s co-defen­dant in the case, her hus­band, whom she mar­ried at the age of 15 and who had phys­i­cal­ly and sex­u­al­ly abused her, was sen­tenced to LWOP in a plea deal. Ms. Neelley’s was the first com­mu­ta­tion of a death sen­tence in Alabama in 45 years. 

The lawyer rep­re­sent­ing Ms. Neelley at the time of her com­mu­ta­tion said that Gov. James had con­di­tioned con­sid­er­a­tion of her clemen­cy peti­tion on absolute secre­cy — ​“No AG. No press. No one.” In an inter­view after the fact, Governor James cit­ed the jury LWOP rec­om­men­da­tion as his rea­son for grant­i­ng the clemen­cy. Given that the gov­er­nor had exclud­ed from his largess numer­ous men fac­ing death under sim­i­lar cir­cum­stances, her lawyer com­ment­ed at the time that he believed ​“her gen­der saved her life.” Under the terms of her com­mu­ta­tion, Ms. Neelley was made parole-eli­gi­ble by Gov. James, but she is still incar­cer­at­ed at this time. Alabama Gov. Ivey opposed parole for Ms. Neelley the last time the ques­tion arose in 2023. In the wake of Ms. Neelley’s case, the Alabama leg­is­la­ture amend­ed the State’s clemen­cy statute (Ala. Code § 15 – 22-27(b)) to pro­hib­it the Governor’s office from com­mut­ing con­demned indi­vid­u­als to a parole eligible sentence.