Alabama Abolishes Midnight Deadline For Death Warrants
The decision comes after the state was forced to cancel multiple executions by lethal injection after long delays. The court also abolished the state's automatic review process which reviewed all death penalty cases for trial errors.
Landwebs
On Friday, Alabama’s highest court announced changes to procedure, abolishing the previous same-day deadline for the prison system to carry out an execution and giving Governor Kay Ivey the power to set a time window, the Associated Press reports. The court also abolished the state’s automatic review process which reviewed all death penalty cases for trial errors.
The decision comes after the state was forced to cancel multiple executions by lethal injection after long delays. Ivey’s office described the changes as a “win for justice,” while Bryan Stevenson, founder of the non-profit Equal Justice Initiative, warned that the combination of the two rule changes may lead to “more wrongful convictions, more unjust sentences and more cruelty and potential torture.”
