Alabama Post-Conviction Relief Project

09/09/2026

Twelve People Decided. One Judge Overruled Them.

Al.com has a new piece out on Alabama's judicial override cases, and the question in the headline is the right one: will Governor Ivey side with the jurors?

Here's the part that still stops people cold when they hear it. Alabama abolished judicial override in 2017. Governor Ivey signed the bill herself, in her first days in office. The message was clear — in a capital case, the sentence belongs to the jury, not to a single elected judge. But the law wasn't made retroactive. So 25 people remain on Alabama's death row today under a sentencing scheme this state has already declared wrong. Several of them had juries that voted unanimously for life.
These aren't close calls about guilt or innocence. They're about whether a verdict means anything. Twelve citizens listened to the evidence, deliberated, and chose life. One judge said no.
Governor Ivey leaves office in January. She has the clemency power to finish the work she started in 2017 — to bring these sentences in line with the law Alabama already has on its books, while keeping every one of these individuals in prison for the rest of their lives.

Read the piece. Then tell her.

https://www.al.com/news/2026/09/juries-wanted-them-to-live-alabama-judges-sent-them-to-die-will-kay-ivey-side-with-the-jurors.html?gift=538e650f-9dd5-4e7d-b9ea-8c6926b60970

25 people remain on death row, even though the jury didn't vote for them to die. The governor could change that.

07/15/2026

We are so proud to celebrate one of our volunteers! Congratulations Brian M. White !

https://www.alapcrp.org/news/a-guiding-hand-brian-white-to-receive-national-aba-award-for-death-penalty-defense

07/01/2026

Whatever one’s views about the death penalty, it is difficult to defend a system in which twelve jurors carefully consider the evidence and vote for life, only to have a single elected judge impose death instead. It is even harder to defend now that every state that once permitted judicial override has abandoned it.

https://yellowhammernews.com/robert-harwood-jr-op-ed-i-reviewed-death-sentences-under-judicial-override-alabama-was-right-to-end-it/

"In 2017, the Alabama Legislature abolished judicial override," former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Robert Bernard Harwood, Jr. writes.

"Every other state that had once allowed the practice had already done the same. Today, in Alabama, the jury’s decision between life without parole and death is final. Judges no longer have the authority to substitute their own judgment.

Looking back, I do not believe the old law was unlawful at the time. But it required elected trial judges to overturn decisions already made by twelve jurors. That created circumstances in which the appearance—if not the reality—of outside pressure could exist. I believe the Legislature was right to end the practice.

Whatever one’s views about the death penalty, it is difficult to defend a system in which twelve jurors carefully consider the evidence and vote for life, only to have a single elected judge impose death instead. It is even harder to defend now that every state that once permitted judicial override has abandoned it.

The difficult question is what should happen to those sentenced to death under the old law."

Link in comments to read full column

06/18/2026

Think about what that means. A poor Black man with intellectual limitations was forced to rely on a defense attorney who openly aligned himself with a terrorist organization best known for murderous violence against people who looked like his client. That is a moral crisis.

A poor Black man with intellectual limitations was forced to rely on a defense attorney who openly aligned himself with a terrorist organization.

06/18/2026

Twenty-six people are on death row in Alabama because of judicial override.

Governor Ivey was recently quoted saying she is committed to seeing justice served. We're asking that she start by honoring the 26 jury recommendations for life without parole delivered in Alabama capital cases.

Twenty-six times, Alabama citizens showed up for the judicial system. They did their duty in good faith. Governor Ivey can honor their careful deliberation and sentencing recommendations with one act: clemency.

We ask that she restore the juries' verdicts of life without parole, beginning with Jeffery Lee. She led the way for reform by abolishing override as an unconstitutional practice in 2017. She can ensure the severe punishment of life without parole is still imposed while finishing what she started and correcting the legacy of judicial override in Alabama.

Call Governor Ivey and tell her there is no Alabama justice without Alabama juries. I oppose the ex*****on of the 26 people whose juries voted for life without parole. (334) 242-7100

06/17/2026

News out of Ohio echoes...

Governor DeWine, "I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty."

On June 16, 2026, Ohio's Republican Governor Mike DeWine stood at a Columbus press conference and asked the state's legislature to do something he himself helped make possible 45 years ago: end the death penalty. "I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty," DeWine said, urging the G

06/12/2026

Jeffery Lee is alive this morning.

At 6:00 a.m. Central today, the ex*****on window set by Governor Ivey expired. Before any future ex*****on date can be set, the State will need new authorization to proceed — and under the permanent injunction, it cannot proceed by nitrogen hypoxia by any route unless the judgment is overturned on appeal.

Jeffery Lee is alive this morning. At 6:00 a.m. Central today, the ex*****on window set by Governor Ivey expired. Before any future ex*****on date can be set, the State will need new authorization to proceed — and under the permanent injunction, it cannot proceed by nitrogen hypoxia by any route u...

06/12/2026

06/11/2026

Eleventh Circuit denies State's request to lift the injunction on using nitrogen to execute Mr. Lee tomorrow. SCOTUS up next.

https://www.alapcrp.org/news/eleventh-circuit-refuses-to-clear-the-way-injunction-against-nitrogen-hypoxia-stands-on-the-eve-of-jeffery-lees-ex*****on-date