NEW RESOURCES: Judges in Alabama Imposing Death Sentences by Overriding Juries

A new report from the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama expos­es the prac­tice of state judges impos­ing death sen­tences by over­rid­ing a jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion for life. EJI’s study found that judges in the state have over­rid­den jury rec­om­men­da­tions 107 times since 1976. In 92% of the over­rides, judges over­ruled life ver­dicts to impose a death sen­tence. More than 20% of the defen­dants on Alabama’s death row were sen­tenced through judge over­rides. These sen­tences con­tribute to the high per capi­ta death sen­tenc­ing and exe­cu­tion rates in Alabama com­pared to the rest of the country. 

In Alabama, tri­al and appel­late court judges are elect­ed, often based on ​“tough on crime” plat­forms. The study found that the pro­por­tion of death sen­tences imposed by over­ride often is ele­vat­ed dur­ing elec­tion years. For exam­ple, in 2008, 30% of new death sen­tences were imposed through judge over­ride, com­pared to only 7% in 1997, a non-elec­tion year. In Johnson v. Alabama–a case involv­ing a judi­cial over­ride–Justice Thurgood Marshall, wrote in dis­sent that ​“it approach­es the most lit­er­al sense of the word ​‘arbi­trary’ to put one to death in the face of a con­trary jury deter­mi­na­tion where it is accept­ed that the jury had indeed respon­si­bly car­ried out its task.”

The report states that Alabama is unique in its prac­tice of judi­cial over­ride. Both Delaware and Florida allow death sen­tences by judi­cial over­ride, but Delaware has no one on death row as a result, and Florida has not had such a sen­tence in 12 years.