---
title: "Sentence of One of Alabama's Longest Serving Death Row Inmates Reduced After 30 Years"
description: 'On December 6, Bobby Tarver, who had spent 30 years on Alabama’s death row, finally had his death sentence reduced to life without parole by a state judge…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/sentence-of-one-of-alabamas-longest-serving-death-row-inmates-reduced-after-30-years'
section: news
date: '2012-12-07T17:17:09-05:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:33:54-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

! On December 6, **Bobby Tarver**, who had spent 30 years on **Alabama**'s death row, finally had his death sentence reduced to life without parole by a state judge because of his intellectual disability. Tarver was Mobile County's longest-serving death row inmate, having been convicted in 1982 of murdering a taxi cab driver. Last September, a federal judge overruled state court opinions and held that Tarver could not be executed because of his mental retardation, thus concluding a years-long legal battle about Tarver’s mental capacity. The final ruling came ten years after the U.S. Supreme Court held in *Atkins v. Virginia* (2002) that it was unconstitutional to execute defendants with mental retardation.

(B. Kirby, "[Judge changes sentence of Mobile County's longest-serving death row inmate to life](http://blog.al.com/live/2012/12/judge_changes_sentence_of_mobi.html)," Birmingham News, December 6, 2012. See **[Intellectual Disability](/intellectual-disability-and-death-penalty?scid=28&did=176)** and [**Time on Death Row**](/article.php?&did=1397).