A lawmaker has prefiled a bill that would create a constitutional amendment to eliminate Alabama’s death penalty and put the question before voters in 2028.
HB76, introduced by Representative Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, would add language to the state constitution stating that no crime “shall be punishable by death” and would require the legislature to pass laws prohibiting capital punishment. The measure also declares any statute authorizing the death penalty void.
If approved by lawmakers, the amendment would appear on the ballot during the 2028 statewide primary election.
Because the proposal is structured as a constitutional amendment rather than a statutory change, it would need both legislative approval and voter ratification. That approach takes longer than simply repealing the state’s death penalty statute but would make abolition far more difficult to undo in future legislative sessions. The bill also directs lawmakers to pass implementing laws if voters approve the amendment to prevent any legal gaps created by the ban.
Alabama remains one of the nation’s most active death penalty states. It has carried out several executions in recent years. It has also drawn national scrutiny for a series of botched or aborted attempts, prompting debate over the reliability of its lethal-injection protocol.
The state has also begun regularly using nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution after authorizing it in 2018, a development that has drawn additional attention from legal experts and human-rights groups. Alabama became the first state to utilize the method in 2024.
HB76 arrives as other lawmakers have prefiled bills moving in the opposite direction, seeking to broaden, rather than limit, capital punishment.
HB20, introduced by Representative Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, would expand the list of capital-eligible murders to include killings where a defendant “knowingly creates a great risk of death to multiple persons.”
SB17, introduced by Senator April Weaver, R-Brierfield, known as the Child Predator Death Penalty bill, would make first-degree rape or sodomy of a child under 12 eligible for the death penalty.
Efforts to limit or abolish the death penalty have periodically surfaced in Alabama. Over the past decade, lawmakers have introduced moratorium proposals and measures tightening eligibility for capital charges.
None have advanced far in a legislature that has long maintained strong support for the death penalty, leaving HB76 to face the same uphill path as earlier attempts.
