Alabama Judicial Override: Is One Greater than Twelve? A Post-Furman Look at Potential Disparities in Capital Sentencing in Alabama

Abstract

From low level drug offenses to capital murder, arrests and sentencing remain disproportionate in the United States. As a response to the Supreme Court’s Furman v. Georgia ruling against arbitrary sentencing in capital cases, the state of Alabama implemented the judicial override as a measure to give a defendant a second chance at life after a jury had sentenced him to death.