We The Jury—a new coalition of jurors, judges, attorneys, elected officials, community advocates and activists—is urging Governor Kay Ivey to grant clemency to death row inmates who were sentenced by judicial override, a now-illegal sentencing scheme that allowed judges to override a jury’s life sentence recommendation in favor of the death penalty.
Between 1981 and 2015, Alabama judges delivered 101 death sentences through judicial override, accounting for nearly a quarter of all death sentences. During that same period, half of all death row exonerations due to innocence, three out of six, came in cases involving judicial override.
Delaware, Florida and Indiana are the only other states to have practiced judicial override in the United States. Indiana outlawed the practice in 2002, while Delaware and Florida followed suit in 2016.
Alabama became the last state to end judicial override in 2017, when Ivey signed Senate Bill 16 into law. However, the law was not retroactive, leaving inmates sentenced through judicial override before that point on death row.
We The Jury is pushing Ivey to grant clemency to the 25 inmates still on death row as a result of judicial override. With Ivey recently commuting the death sentences of Charles “Sonny” Burton and Robin “Rocky” Myers, the coalition argues similar action should be taken for all remaining judicial override cases in Alabama.
“Alabama has already acknowledged that judicial override is wrong,” Dick Brewbaker, a coalition member and former Republican state senator, said. “Now the question is whether we are willing to fix it. You cannot say a practice is unconstitutional and continue to carry out sentences based on it. Clemency is the only way to level the playing field and ensure every case is treated with the same standard of justice.”
“Clemency is not a pardon,” Brewbaker said. “It does not erase the crime or undo the conviction. It simply ensures that sentencing reflects the jury’s decision and aligns with the law as it stands today.”
Francis Miles, another coalition member who served as a juror in a judicial override case, argued that judicial override defeats the purpose of having a jury and should be reversed retroactively.
“We gave him a life sentence; it was a unanimous decision,” Miles said. “The judge overturned it after, come to find out, and it upset me deeply because I felt the jury’s whole purpose is to have them have a say. … I believe when 12 honest people, jurors, come to a verdict the judge has no right to overturn what the people decided.”
The coalition said it plans to “engage in public education, advocacy, and outreach efforts” as it looks to raise awareness about the lasting impact of judicial override and push for clemency for those affected.
