Holman Prison

The 2020 Legislative Session, which began last week, will be the second session of Governor Kay Ivey’s administration.  For the second straight year, she and the legislature will be facing a major obstacle. The prison problem is the paramount issue for the year.  The state must address and resolve this dilemma or the federal authorities … Continued

A federal appeals court panel has blocked tonight’s scheduled execution of Dominique Ray over the state’s refusal to allow his imam in the execution room with him. The three-judge Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals panel issued a stay of execution over concerns that Alabama may have violated the establishment clause of the Constitution. On January … Continued

INSIDE THE STATEHOUSE by Steve Flowers While the presidential race played out this year, several things happened in Alabama politics that went under the radar. First, a federal appeals court upheld the legislature’s banning PAC to PAC transfers. The new Republican legislative majority that marched into the Statehouse in 2011 set out to destroy and … Continued

By Stephen Cooper Since opening its doors on December 15, 1969, Alabama’s William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, has been a bastion of violence, fear, pain and baleful human suffering. Built on a shoestring budget of five million dollars during Governor Lurleen Wallace’s administration, it took just five years for Holman prison’s perpetually … Continued

By Stephen Cooper In about two weeks, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley — himself a desperate cartoonish candidate for clemency from the people of Alabama (who he has so profoundly betrayed) — will be the sole arbiter of clemency for Mr. Vernon Madison, an African-American death row inmate; On May 12, Mr. Madison is scheduled to … Continued