Lawmakers vote down bill that would allow some Alabama death row inmates to be resentenced

By KIM CHANDLER
Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — 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 House Judiciary Committee voted 9-4 against the bill that would give life without parole sentences to the death row inmates who were placed there under a now-abolished system of judicial override. Alabama in 2017 became the last state to abandon the practice of allowing judges to override a jury’s sentence recommendation, but the change was not retroactive. There are about 33 people on Alabama’s death row who were sentenced under the old system