Journey of Hope Jacksonville State University The Death Penalty in Alabama Introduction & Thanks o Bill Pelke &

p; Callie Greer o Friend of JAM & Development Officer of PHADP o Introduction of PHADP What is the point? o Weve heard from Bill and Callie regarding their personal journeys relating to the death penalty o What about the rest of us? o Why did we, the members of PHADP, JAM and the hosts for the individual sites, feel like it was worth all the effort to organize a Journey of Hope here in Alabama? Many Reasons o The truth is, there are many reasons. For some, it is personal convictions about the sanctity of all life Some feel the capital punishment system in Alabama is woefully inadequate and rife with the possibility of error For others, it is the racial inequality in the application of the death penalty Some see the national and international trend away from the use of capital punishment and feel it is time for Alabama to follow suit And for others, it is a combination of all of these, and so many others issues that we could not possibly hope to cover them all tonight Alabama o When we talk about capital punishment here in Alabama, there are several aspects of the system which set Alabama apart and are truly unique First Quantity Per capita, Alabama has the highest death row population, and the highest rate of new death sentences o Specifically: in 2011 nationwide 78 individuals received a sentence of death, 8 of those, over 10% of the national total, occurred here in Alabama. Per capita, Alabama executed more people in 2011 than any other state, and was in fact, second only to Texas in number of executions o To put in perspective: In 2000 85 persons were executed, nationally. In 2011, that number fell to 43almost half, but again, Alabama, with 6 executions last year, accounted for over 10% of the national total. o Beyond just the numbers, the national trend is moving away from capital punishment as even an option. As of today, 16 states have officially abolished the death penalty, and several others are either under moratorium or have not used capital punishment in recent years and can practically be lumped in with those states that have done away with it as a judicial punishment. o Furthermore, last year a national public opinion study was conducted and found that when given alternative sentences, including life without parole AND some form of restitution, the majority (61%) chose one of the alternatives, compared to 33% who chose death as the appropriate penalty for murder.

o There was a time when majority support was clearly on the side of capital punishment, but today, there is, at the very least, movement toward alternatives, and strong evidence to support public opinion shifting to a variety of alternatives. Second Quality of the system Alabama is one of the only states with the death penalty that does not also provide a public defender system to provide adequate and experienced capital defense counsel o In fact, in Alabama, any Bar approved attorney with at least 5 years of experience practicing law is eligible to sign up to be used as defense counsel in a capital casefamily lawbusinessit doesnt matter, as long as they have 5 years experience Alabama says they are qualified to work as a capital defense attorney o Furthermore, 70% of those currently on Alabamas death row were represented by counsel that worked under a $1000 cap for out-of-trial expensespreparing motionsinterviewing witnessesexamining evidencediscovering mitigating factors and finding character witnessesthey could bill the court for a maximum of $1000 per case, for those types of out-of-trial expenses. Thankfully this aspect has now been changedbut that provides little relief for all those already on death row o To add insult to injury, Alabama does not provide any form of post-conviction representation for the long and arduous appeals process. Another quality issue is that of Judicial Override. o In Alabama, a capital case consists of two phases, basically, the guilt phase and the sentencing phase. The guilt phase concludes with the decision of the jury, whether guilty or not-guilty. In the case of a guilty verdict, often the sentencing phase will begin immediately with testimony regarding both aggravating and mitigating circumstances for the jury to consider before recommending a sentence to the judge. In Alabama, it is then the decision of the judge whether to uphold or overturn the decision of the jury. For example, a jury could recommend life without parole with a vote of 10-2, but the judge has the authority to disregard the jurys recommendation and instead, impose a sentence of death. o This is particularly troubling for a couple reasons First, in Alabama judges are elected officials, and history has shown the number of death sentences imposed by judicial override is higher during an election year. In 2008, for example, it was an election year, and 30% of the death sentences in Alabama were as a result of judicial override. Second, of the 3 states with Judicial Override on the books, Alabama is the only state that does not require the judge to provide lengthy justification for their decision. In fact, no justification is required. It is simply something the judge is allowed to do.

One case in particular sticks in my mindthe judge stated that he did not want to be seen as racist, so he imposed the death sentence upon a white man to offset 2 or 3 cases involving African-American menthat was his reasoningcompletely arbitrary. A third issue related to the quality of the system is related to mental capacity o In 2002, the Supreme Court decided in the case of Atkins v. Virginia that it was unconstitutional, as cruel and unusual punishment, to execute the mentally retarded or those with sufficient mental deficiency. o By and large, death penalty states have established an IQ of 70 as the threshold for deciding a person is intellectually capable of understanding both their actions and the result, in this case, execution o Alabama, however, has managed to skirt this ruling by not establishing any precedent for IQ level or other competency indicators. This also makes it nearly impossible to bring it up during the appeals process, because it is basically impossible to establish as a mitigating factor in the initial trial. o One example from just the last few years is a gentleman by the name of Holly Wood. When he was being relocated to the death cell in the days leading up to his execution, he told some of the other guys on death row, See you tomorrow! He literally had no concept that he was being led to his death. And it was a known fact that his IQ was below 70but that doesnt matter in Alabama. And for a final quality issue, I just want to mention the issue of race. We could spend all night talking about this one factor, if we had the time, but I just want to mention a few specific statistics and facts o In Alabama, the population is approximately 71% Caucasian and 26% Africa-American, yet the population of death row in Alabama is right at 50/50. o Furthermore, white victims account for only an approximate 35% of all murder victims in Alabama, yet 80% of those on death row have been convicted of killing a white victim. o What this tells us isin Alabama, if you are a white man who kills an African-American or a Latino, you stand a good chance of receiving a sentence of life without parole, however, an AfricanAmerican man found guilty of killing, for example, a white woman, it is almost a foregone conclusion that you will receive a sentence of death. Just in those few statistics there are so many aspects that we do not have time to discuss, so I just leave it with you to think about o But just to add to itin Alabama, only 5% of the judges who preside over capital cases are African-American and, since 1976, 88% of those executed were tried and convicted by juries where African-Americans were severely underrepresented, in fact, 35% of the juries were all white.

 Additional quality factors o We could go on and talk about the inaccessibility of postconviction DNA testing, the cost disparity between capital punishment and life without parole, ineffectiveness as a deterrent to crime, even, religious implications and probably a dozen other issues, if we had the time. But in my opinion, even without the additional information, we have already talked about enough evidence to support, at the very least, a moratorium, during which the system could be studied. Of course, I believe, as does the American Bar Association and many others, that Alabamas system would be found to be beyond repair. Just as Gov. Ryan in Illinois decided years ago, when he enacted a moratorium in his state, as a result of the ensuing study, the people of Illinois were also convinced and moratorium became abolition.