Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> StandDown Texas Project

Criminal Law

: StandDown Texas Project

Alabama Sentencing

By standdown

The Birmingham New carried the editorial, "Alabama jurors' recommendations about whether a criminal defendant ought to be sentenced to death should mean something. But judges get to make the decision," on Saturday. The jury's 10-2 vote for a sentence of life in prison without parole should have carried the day. In most states, it would have. Alabama is one of two states that allow judges to disregard a jury's recommendation and sentence a defendant to death. And it is the only state where the power is used liberally. About one in five of Alabama's Death Row inmates faces execution even though a jury voted against it. That is disturbing, but not surprising in a state in which judges are elected to office and can feel pressure to appear tough on crime...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on April 28, 2008 (boomark / email).