Alabama | Proposed bill would require unanimous jury decision to impose death sentence

House Bill 14 would require a unanimous vote by jurors to impose a death sentence in capital murder cases in the state of Alabama. The bill is sponsored by State Representative Chris England of Tuscaloosa County.

"When I started practicing almost every state imposed the death penalty. Now we are down to 27," said Richard S. Jaffe, a local criminal defense lawyer. "That is very significant in what's going on with the national trend which is many, many, many fewer death verdicts and fewer states even allowing the death penalty. That's the trend."

In 3 states, a death sentence can be handed down without a unanimous jury decision.

At least 10 jurors are needed to sentence someone to death in Alabama. In Missouri and Indiana, judges determine the sentence, which could be death, even if a jury isn't unanimous in their decision.

"It's kind of hard, I think, to argue with those other 20-something states that require a unanimous verdict because we are talking about eliminating a life, putting someone to death rather than allowing them to die in prison," said Jaffe. "A lot of people think that it's more expensive to house someone for their life even if sentenced at a young age but the fact of the matter is it's 5 times more expensive to seek the death penalty and 45% of death verdicts are overturned on appeal anyway. It's really not fair to the victims' families for our sentencing structure to be the way it is."

He added, to sentence a person to life in prison without parole, there have to be at least seven jurors in favor.

"Anything in between gets very messy," said Jaffe.

Criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, Leslie Schiffman Moore, explained a unanimous verdict is required to convict a person of capital murder. She believed it should be the same for a death sentence.

"It's the most serious decision a jury has to make putting somebody to death, putting another human being to death regardless of what they've done, and they have done something horrible to get to that point obviously," she said.

The bill also has some retroactive measures. It allows for people who've been sentenced to death without a unanimous verdict to be resentenced.

Before 2017, juries provided non-binding advisory verdicts in capital murder cases. The judge was able to make the final decision, which could be something different than the jury advisory. Judges were required to give the advisory verdict consideration.

Inmates who had a judge hand down a sentence not matching the jury advisory could also be resentenced under this bill.

Those with a non-unanimous sentence or with a sentence from a judge different than the jury advisory could petition to be resentenced by filing a form with the Administrative Office of Courts if HB 14 passed into law.

"I think we're heading toward the point where the United States Supreme Court is going to require a unanimous verdict for death, a unanimous recommendation for death from a jury. I think we are getting ahead of the game on this by changing the law before we are told to change the law by the federal government or before we end up with a bunch of appeals based on a new opinion by the United States Supreme Court, " said Moore. "[A non-unanimous jury] makes people think that we want to impose the death penalty, or make the death penalty more easy to impose when we're not in line with the rest of the country."

Jaffe said there is a weight put on jurors who are tasked with deciding life or death.

"They are weighing decisions to basically play God and step into that role and decide whether someone lives or dies, especially since we just don't know all the time what really happened in many of these cases," said Jaffe.

According to the bill, if a jury is unable to reach a verdict during the sentencing phase, a mistrial is declared. The mistrial does not impact the conviction. Another sentencing hearing will be conducted for a different jury. After one or more mistrials, the right to have a verdict from a jury can be waived and the judge can decide the sentence without a recommendation from a jury.

Changes to the state's execution process have been ongoing. In November, Gov. Kay Ivey ordered a review of the state's execution process after failed executions.

In January, the Alabama Supreme Court abolished the previous one-day time frame to carry out a death sentence. The governor will now set the window of time for the execution.

The Court also eliminated an automatic "plain error review". That review allowed the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to automatically review death penalty cases for a clear error at trial even though the defense lawyer did not object.

A spokesperson with the Alabama Department of Corrections said the review is nearing completion.

Source: ABC News, Staff, February 24, 2023

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