Alabama Judges Overriding Jury Sentences in Murder Cases Rarely Opt for Leniency
Giving judges the power to override the sentencing decisions of capital juries could be an important check on overzealous decisions.
But in Alabama, judges overriding juries deciding capital cases overwhelmingly favor the death penalty, the New York Times reports. A new report by the Equal Justice Initiative has found that, since 1976, judges rejected sentencing recommendations of capital juries in 107 cases. In 92 percent of those cases, judges overrode a life sentence recommendation and sentenced the defendant to death.
Alabama imposes more death sentences, on a per capita basis, than any other state, the story says. The overrides are more frequent in the years when judges are running for re-election.
Judge Ferrill McRae, who retired in 2006, has a modern record in the state for overriding life sentence recommendations. He imposed the death penalty in six overrides. He told the Times that his experience made him a better judge of what type of crime is deserving of capital punishment under Alabama’s standards. “Juries don’t know,” he said, “what is ‘especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.’ ”
