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death row

Alabama should put a moratorium on executions

Alabama has lost the moral high ground required to stand as executioner. It should at least pause executions until it regains it.
November 21, 2022

State executes Michael Brandon Samra

Thursday, the State of Alabama executed Michael Brandon Samra for participating in the 1997 quadruple murder of Randy Duke, Dedra Mims Hunt and her six and seven-year-old daughters, Chelisa and Chelsea. Following the execution, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) released a statement: “For more than 20 years, the loved ones of Randy, Dedra and her … Continued
May 17, 2019

The prospective gassing of human beings in Alabama is an abomination

When, in October 2016, I wrote “[d]eath row inmates in Alabama are human guinea pigs” because the state’s capital punishment regime — specifically its barbaric, often bungled lethal injection protocol — is already so dark, so depraved, so outrageously cloaked in lies and officious secrecy, I never could have predicted the situation could get worse. But it … Continued
December 3, 2018

Attorney General “commutes” death sentence without authority to do so

According to lawyers for convicted murderer and death row inmate Doyle Lee Hamm, he and the state of Alabama entered into a “confidential settlement agreement…preventing any further execution attempts” by the state on March 26. The offices of Attorney General Steve Marshall handled the arrangements for Hamm’s settlement. However, there is no provision in state … Continued
April 2, 2018