Death Penalty in AL

Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty supports ending the practice of state killing everywhere but our focus is primarily on accomplishing what we can in Alabama. This section is dedicated to information regarding the death penalty as it relates to Alabama. Please visit the sub-links to the right for more information. Thank you!

Ghosts Over the Boiler: Voices from Alabama's Death Row
Released in March 2023, Ghosts Over the Boiler is a curated collection of poetry, visual art, photographs, essays, creative writings, and other archival materials that have emerged from Alabama's death row from the organization Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty (PHADP). This group was founded at Holman Correctional Facility and has been operating autonomously […]
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And then there is Alabama…
While executions nationwide have been consistently decreasing over the last decade, Alabama has been continually seeking to expand the use of the death penalty, as the graph below illustrates.
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AL Statistics
Alabama Death Penalty Statistics: Total on Death Row: 203 Males: African American: 95, White: 100, Other: 3 Females: African American: 2, White: 3 Executions in Alabama since 1976: Males: 54 Females: 1 Exonerations: 8 men were found to have been wrongfully convicted and were released from death row. Post conviction DNA legislation passed in 2009 contains […]
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Judicial Override
Until 2017, Alabama allowed the practice of judicial override. Through this policy judges would often override a jury’s sentencing recommendation and impose a death sentence, even when the jury had recommended a life sentence. While this practice is no longer allowed, the bill to remove it was not retroactive. Rep. Chris England, whose bill ended […]
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ABA Report on Alabama
American Bar Association: Alabama Death Penalty Assessment Report Summary ALABAMA'S DEATH PENALTYSYSTEM IDENTIFICATION OF PROBLEMS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REFORM Regardless of one's feelings about the morality of the death penalty, we all understand that, as a society, we must do all we can to ensure a fair and accurate system for every person who faces […]
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Alabama prisons plan to amend execution protocol
Alabama prison officials carried out the execution of death row inmate William Glenn Boyd using sodium thiopental as one of the drugs in the lethal injection. Prison spokesman Brian Corbett said the Department of Corrections has enough of the drug to carry out two more executions that have been requested by the attorney general's office. […]
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UN Report
Professor Philip AlstonUnited Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executionsNew York, 30 June 2008
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Alabama 2005 Poll Data
We thank the Capital Survey Research Center for so graciously responding to our request for a death penalty survey in Alabama and we thank all who contributed to this survey. It confirms that a solid majority of the people of Alabama believe that the time has come for a moratorium on executions while an independent […]
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Broken Justice
"Of all the actions carried out by the state, none warrants more cautious implementation and stringent review than the imposition of the death penalty. Yet in Alabama,this most solemn responsibility remains fraught with inconsistencies and inequities. The structure of the state's criminal justice system and the power given to its trial and appellate judges compromise […]
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