Locals: U.N. critique of Alabama’s death penalty unfair

Katie Stallcup
Staff writer
Published: July 3, 2008

Local players in the justice system say the recent critique of Alabama’s death penalty process by the U.N. is unfair.

An Australian professor, Philip Alston, conducted a special report to the U.N. In a statement on the U.N.’s Web site (http://www.un.org), Alston outlines his report. In it, he critiques Alabama’s capital punishment system, saying he found flaws, such as what he says is poor representation in appointed attorneys and judges’ rights to overturn jury sentencings.

Lee County District Attorney Nick Abbett said he hadn’t read the full statement, but he thought the critique was harsh.

“The death penalty serves as a deterrent to crime,” Abbett said. “I’m for the death penalty. I really don’t think the U.N. ought to have a lot to say about what we do in the state of Alabama … In Lee County, in my experience, (appointed representation) has been very good in capital cases.”

In his statement, Alston said when Alabama judges override jury verdicts, they almost always increase the sentence rather than decrease it.

Circuit Court Judge Jacob A. Walker said he thought that statement didn’t coincide with his experience. He talked with one judge who overrode a jury’s sentence from death to life in prison, he said.

Walker also said he thought the state had put a real effort in the past few years toward improving the system, especially when it came to defense attorneys in capital murder cases. The pay for such attorneys has been raised, and a group of defense attorneys has made defending those accused of capital murder their expertise, he said.

“I do think the system has really tried to improve, and it has,” he said.

Death as a sentence is certainly not the normal sentence for murder convictions, Walker said.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Web site (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov), three people were executed in Alabama last year.

“It’s a rarity,” Walker said.