During the 2025 Legislative Session, state Representative Phillip Pettus, R-Killen, sponsored a bill that looked to prohibit Alabama judges from granting youthful offender status to anyone 16 years of age or older who is charged with murder or capital murder. The bill passed out of the House, but ultimately failed to pass into law before the end of the session. Now, Pettus is refiling a new version of the legislation ahead of the 2026 session.
The legislation, now prefiled as House Bill 11, would mandate that any Alabamian charged with committing murder or capital murder when they were at least 16 years old be “charged, arrested, and tried as an adult.”
While the text of HB11 is largely identical to Pettus’ previous version of the bill, it does include a new stipulation which clarifies that its provisions “shall not bar an individual from being eligible for application for youthful offender status if the initial charge of capital murder… is reduced to a lesser charge.”
Despite this added language, HB11 may still face critiques similar to those levied at last session’s House Bill 146—namely, that it takes away judicial discretion.
“I’m just opposed to removing judicial discretion,” Representative Jim Hill, R-District 50, a former circuit court judge, said of Pettus’ bill last session. “We don’t want judges making the law from the bench.”
“To strip, cold turkey, discretion away from judges, I just think we’re going down a very, very dangerous road by doing this,” Representative Prince Chestnut, D-Selma, also remarked at the time. “We’re going to get cookie cutter justice across this state, and it’s not going to be good for the defendants or the victims.”
Under Alabama’s Youthful Offender Act, individuals who are granted youthful offender status have their proceedings and records kept confidential, are not formally convicted of a misdemeanor or felony–thereby avoid many long-term consequences of a criminal record—and receive less severe sentencing.
Currently, youthful offenders found guilty of committing a felony face a maximum of three years in prison in Alabama. Judges may already deny youthful offender status in the case of heinous crimes, including murder.
