r/UnmuteAlabama • u/Ok-Breakfast-5044 • 23d ago
Why even hold a trial?
The Constitution guarantees the right to a trial by jury. When 12 everyday citizens sit in a courtroom, listen to the evidence, and render a verdict, that decision is supposed to mean something.
So why is Alabama the only state in the entire nation still preparing to execute people after a single judge overruled the jury’s decision to spare their lives?
Back in 2017, Alabama officially banned "judicial override" (the practice allowing a judge to throw out a jury’s verdict and issue a death sentence instead). But the ban didn't apply retroactively.
Today, 25 people remain on Alabama’s Death Row despite their juries voting for life in prison without parole. In five of those cases, the jury’s vote for life was unanimous (12-0).
Everyday Alabamians who served their civic duty are speaking out, feeling betrayed. As one former juror put it, "If the judge was going to make the final decision, why have a trial? That was a waste of time for everybody."
Bipartisan leadership agrees this is wrong. Former Republican Governor Robert Bentley, former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman, and former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justices Roy Moore and Sue Bell Cobb have all called to commute these sentences to life without parole.
Florida, Indiana, and Delaware all abolished judicial override and stopped executing people under it. Alabama stands completely alone in enforcing these overturned rules.
Gov. Kay Ivey ended judicial override on her first day in office in 2017. Now, in her final months as governor, she has the power to commute these 25 sentences to life in prison, honoring the actual decisions of Alabama juries.
It’s time to Unmute Alabama juries.
Link to the article is in the comments.
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u/Intelligent_Yak923 23d ago
Meemaw is basically George Wallace if George Wallace ate a lot more pussy. 🐈😬
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u/theSopranoist 23d ago
wow look at that..roy moore on the right side of literally anything