Former Alabama Death Row Inmate Freed on Evidence of Innocence ​“Glad to Be Alive”

Montez Spradley, sen­tenced to death by an Alabama judge in 2008 over a jury’s 10 – 2 rec­om­men­da­tion for life with­out parole, was freed from prison on September 4. Spradley spent 9.5 years incar­cer­at­ed, includ­ing 3.5 years on death row. He was grant­ed a new tri­al in 2011 as a result of mul­ti­ple evi­den­tiary errors in his tri­al. The state’s key wit­ness against Spradley, his ex-girl­friend, Alisha Booker, lat­er tes­ti­fied that she had lied at tri­al because Spradley was cheat­ing on her. ​“I just felt he was doing me wrong,” she said. Booker also tes­ti­fied that when she told law enforce­ment offi­cials that she had lied, they told her that she faced jail time and hav­ing her chil­dren tak­en away from her if she did not stick to her orig­i­nal sto­ry. The defense has also alleged that Booker received $10,000 in reward mon­ey for her tes­ti­mo­ny. Spradley agreed to an Alford plea or ​“best inter­est” plea, in which a defen­dant does not admit guilt, but finds it in his best inter­est to plead guilty. Alabama is one of only three states that allows a judge to over­ride a jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion for life, and the only state where such a judi­cial over­ride has been used in 16 years. In more than 90% of the over­rides, judges over­ruled life ver­dicts to impose a death sen­tence, most­ly against African-American defen­dants and dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly dur­ing judi­cial elec­tion years. Upon his release, Spradley said, ​“It was hor­ri­ble, hor­ri­ble to be on death row for a crime I did­n’t do. I would­n’t wish it on any­one. I can’t make up for the years I’ve missed, but I’m so glad to be alive so I can be there for my children.”

(K. Faulk, ​“Alabama man who once spent time on death row: ​‘I’m so glad to be alive’,” AL​.com, September 10, 2015.) See Released from Death Row (Partial Innocence) and Judge/​Jury. (UPDATE: The Washington Post has pub­lished a detailed colum about the Spradley case. R. Balko, The out­ra­geous con­vic­tion of Montez Spradley, The Washington Post, September 21, 2015.)