Sotomayor Critiques Alabama Sentencing in Supreme Court Dissent

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Alabama death row inmate Mario Woodward, who was sen­tenced to death in 2008 despite a jury’s 8 – 4 rec­om­men­da­tion for a life sen­tence. Alabama is one of only three states that allow a judge to over­ride a jury’s sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tion for life to impose a death sen­tence; Florida and Delaware also allow the prac­tice, but death sen­tences by judi­cial over­ride are very rare in those states. Justice Sonia Sotomayor vot­ed to hear the case, say­ing the Court should recon­sid­er Alabama’s death sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dure. In an opin­ion joined in part by Justice Stephen Breyer, Sotomayor said 26 of the 27 cas­es since 2000 in which judges imposed death sen­tences over a jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion for life came from Alabama, includ­ing some in which the vote for life was unan­i­mous. She spec­u­lat­ed that Alabama’s elect­ed judges may face polit­i­cal pres­sures to appear harsh in their use of the death penal­ty that unelect­ed judges in oth­er states do not face. ​“What could explain Alabama judges’ dis­tinc­tive pro­cliv­i­ty for impos­ing death sen­tences in cas­es where a jury has already reject­ed that penal­ty?,” she wrote. ​“The only answer that is sup­port­ed by empir­i­cal evi­dence is one that, in my view, casts a cloud of ille­git­i­ma­cy over the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem: Alabama judges, who are elect­ed in par­ti­san pro­ceed­ings, appear to have suc­cumbed to elec­toral pres­sures.” She cit­ed instances in which judges used their death sen­tences as part of their electoral campaigns.

A recent New York Times edi­to­r­i­al com­ment­ed on the case. The paper not­ed that 90% of Alabama’s judi­cial over­rides impose death where a jury rec­om­mend­ed life, with only 10% impos­ing life over a jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion for death. ​“The death penal­ty should have no legit­i­mate moor­ing at all in mod­ern American soci­ety, and it cer­tain­ly should not be imposed by a judge who is wor­ried about keep­ing his job,” the editorial said.

(R. Barnes, ​“Sotomayor ques­tions Alabama death-penal­ty process,” Washington Post, November 18, 2013; Editorial, ​“Death Meted Out by Politicians in Robes,” New York Times, November 18, 2013). See U.S. Supreme Court. Read the full dis­sent.