Alabama is the only state that in which judges reg­u­lar­ly impose death sen­tences even after a jury rec­om­mends a life sen­tence. Death row inmate Courtney Lockhart has asked the Alabama Supreme Court to recon­sid­er his sen­tence imposed as a result of this unique process. Lockhart was con­vict­ed of cap­i­tal mur­der in 2010. The jury unan­i­mous­ly found that his post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der, result­ing from his mil­i­tary ser­vice in Iraq, was suf­fi­cient­ly mit­i­gat­ing to rec­om­mend a sen­tence of life with­out parole. However, the pre­sid­ing judge over­rode this rec­om­men­da­tion and sen­tenced Lockhart to death. In Alabama, one-fifth of death row inmates were sen­tenced to death over a jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion for life. A study by the Equal Justice Initiative found that the pro­por­tion of death sen­tences imposed by over­ride often is ele­vat­ed in elec­tion years.” Some elect­ed judges tout­ed their death penal­ty records in cam­paign ads. The prac­tice of judi­cial over­ride has con­tributed to Alabama hav­ing one of the high­est per-capi­ta death sen­tenc­ing rates in the coun­try. Bryan Stevenson (pic­tured), exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Equal Justice Initiative, said he hoped that Lockhart’s case will allow the Alabama Supreme Court to reeval­u­ate the pro­pri­ety of judi­cial over­ride.” Delaware and Florida tech­ni­cal­ly also allow judi­cial over­ride, but nei­ther state has had a judge use it in over 15 years.

(R. Buckwalter-Poza, With Judges Overriding Death Penalty Cases, Alabama Is An Outlier,” NPR, July 27, 2014). See Arbitrariness and Sentencing.

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