Alabama Judicial Override Law

Alabama lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a bill that would provide new sentences for about 30 inmates who were given the death penalty despite a jury's recommendation of life imprisonment. The 2017 overturning of Alabama’s judicial override law occurred following the airing of Alabama Public Radio’s national award-winning prison investigation “…and justice for all.”

Jurors in 1994 recommended by a 9-3 vote that Rocky Myers be spared the death penalty and serve life in prison. A judge sentenced him to die anyway. Myers is now one of nearly three dozen inmates on Alabama's death row who were placed there under a now-abolished system that allowed judges to override a jury's recommendation in death penalty case.

A legislative committee has approved a bill that would prevent judges from imposing a death sentence when a jury has recommended life imprisonment. The…