Justice Sotomayor faults Ala. death sentences

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20131118/DAA56H000.html

Nov 18, 2:20 PM (ET)
By MARK SHERMAN

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Monday that partisan political elections for the Alabama courts appear to be driving judges' decisions to impose death sentences, overruling juries that have voted to send defendants to prison for life.

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Alabama, Delaware and Florida are the only states that allow trial judges to override jury sentencing decisions in capital-punishment cases. And since 2000, Alabama accounts for 26 of the 27 defendants who have been sentenced to death despite a jury's vote for life in prison, Sotomayor said. The other case was in Delaware. In that case, the state Supreme Court changed the trial judge's death sentence to a life prison term.

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Since 1982, Woodward is among 95 defendants sentenced to death in Alabama despite a jury's vote for life in prison, Sotomayor said. In 12 instances, the jury vote for a life term was unanimous.

Of those 95 people, at least 30 have since had their death sentences lifted. At least another 38 remain on death row, according to the state Department of Corrections website.

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