Alabama lawmakers reject bill allowing some death row inmates to be resentenced
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - An Alabama House committee rejected a bill that would have impacted sentences for dozens of death row inmates.
The proposal would have required courts to resentence people sentenced to death by a judge who overrode a jury’s recommendation of life in prison.
That practice was outlawed in 2017.
Representative Chris England passionately argued it should be retroactively applied for more than 30 death row inmates who were sentenced to death over a jury’s recommendation.
“We just created immunity for doctors to protect them to do it retroactively for IVF. It’s like we do things out of convenience instead of for justice. It means we can be malleable when we apply these standards,” said England.
England’s bill was rejected by a 9 to 4 vote in the House Judiciary Committee.
That rejection just crushed what hope advocates had for a man who has spent 30 years on death row.
Robin “Rocky” Myers was convicted of murder in the 1991 stabbing of a Decatur woman.
Advocates say he’s innocent and this bill could have changed everything for him.
Alabama Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator for Amnesty International, TJ Riggs has worked closely with defense attorneys in Myer’s case.
Riggs says House Bill 27 could have completely altered Myers’ fate on death row and many others.
Myers was arrested and charged with murder in the stabbing death of a Decatur woman in 1991 with evidence from a key witness who has since recanted their testimony.
He was later convicted of murder by a Morgan County jury, and sentenced to life without parole by that jury.
However, a judge used his powers of judicial override to sentence Myers to death.
Had House Bill 27 been passed, it would have allowed inmates, like Myers to be re-sentenced if the jury wanted a different fate than a judge.
Riggs says Myers could have received a reduced sentence had the bill passed, which would have given him more time to appeal the jury’s original decision.
He also says he bill had the potential to change the fate of dozens of other inmates on death row in Alabama.
”It would kind of take this specter of death out from over his head, because all of these men on death row live in this constant state of ‘is this next execution date going to be my date?’,” said Riggs. “These people’s cases are illegitimate their death sentences are illegitimate and yet they’re still being executed. It’s a crime against justice and a crime against humanity.”
Myers still sits on death row at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, still proclaiming his innocence.
His attorneys are now looking to Governor Kay Ivey to grant him clemency.
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