MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a bill that would provide new sentences for about 30 inmates who were given the death penalty despite a jury’s recommendation of life imprisonment.
The House Judiciary Committee voted 9-4 against the bill that would give life without parole sentences to the death row inmates who were placed there under a now-abolished system that allowed judges to override a jury’s recommendation in death penalty cases.
Alabama in 2017 became the last state to end the practice of allowing judges to override a jury’s sentence recommendation in death penalty case, but the change was not retroactive. There are about 33 people on Alabama’s death row who were sentenced by judicial override, England said.
“We all decided that judicial override was wrong, and we repealed that section. The only right thing to do, in my opinion, is to afford everybody who was sentenced by judicial override the opportunity to be resentenced,” state Rep. Chris England, the sponsor of the bill, told the committee.
Prominent figure in German far
Members of Team Indonesia attend departure ceremony for Chengdu Universiade
The Philippine president says he won't give US access to more local military bases
Hamas chief reaffirms commitment to ceasefire demands
Blues and Brumbies to meet in a pivotal Super Rugby Pacific showdown; Fijians host the Hurricanes
Xi extends condolences to Putin over deadly Moscow concert hall terror attack
Nina Dobrev and boyfriend Shaun White are loved
Chinese books on display at Paris Book Festival 2024
'I was afraid for my life' — Orlando Bloom puts himself in peril for new TV series
Mother charged with murdering five
Should I cancel my holiday to Dubai? As UAE is lashed by year
China's first homegrown polar icebreaker Xuelong 2 arrives in Hong Kong