Alabama just added its 166th person to Death Row. The appeals process could take decades
With the recent conviction of Jeremy Tremaine Williams for murder and rape of a child, Alabama’s Death Row population grew to 166.
Yet, it could be decades before Williams is executed for his crimes due to the lengthy appeals process.
“If I’m realistic, I’ll die before him,” said Russell County District Attorney Rick Chancey in an interview after Williams was given the death penalty. “He’ll be here long after I’m gone.”
In fact, one inmate has waited on death row since January 1982, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections website. And another inmate sentenced to death from Russell County has been on death row since 1997, according to the ADOC website.
Williams was recently found guilty of raping, strangling, and killing 5-year-old Kamarie Holland in Phenix City in December 2021. He was sentenced to death on four counts of capital murder by Judge David A. Johnson.
Williams must now go through the appeals process in order for the death sentence to be upheld and enacted.
Here’s the appeals process as outlined in a document by former Alabama State Attorney General Luther Strange on the attorney general’s website:
One type of appeal is the direct appeal. A defendant sentenced to death is entitled to an automatic appeal to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.
The court can affirm or reverse the conviction, sentence, or both.
If the Court of Criminal Appeals affirms the conviction and sentence the defendant can then file a petition with the Alabama State Supreme Court to hear the case.
If the Alabama Supreme Court doesn’t hear the case, then the appellant may file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court.
If the state Supreme Court does hear the case and affirms the conviction and sentence, then the appellant may file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court.
The appellant will then become known as “the petitioner” can then file a petition for a “writ of certiorari” with the U.S. Supreme Court. A “writ of certiorari” is a request for the Supreme Court to order a lower court to send up the record of the case for the Supreme Court to review, according to uscourts.gov.
If the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear the case then the defendant’s direct appeal is completed.
The defendant can also file a “Rule 32” or state post-conviction appeal where the defendant can’t dispute the conviction or sentence but may dispute other factors whether their trial counsel put on an effective defense.
The defendant would start off their petition at the circuit court where the original trial was held.
If the petition remains unsuccessful and the conviction and sentence are upheld at each point it would move from the circuit court level, to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, to the Alabama State Supreme Court, and finally the U.S. Supreme Court.
The “Fair Justice Act” passed in Alabama in 2017 has changed the process of appeals in Alabama by making the direct appeal and post-conviction appeal stages occur simultaneously, according to the state attorney general’s website.
The last of the appeals would be an appeal to the U.S. Federal Courts. Here the petitioner (defendant) would argue that their conviction and/or sentence should be overturned because the conviction was obtained in violation of their federal constitutional rights
Execution methods in Alabama
In section 15-18-82.1 of the Alabama code it states the following, according to law.justia.com:
(a) A death sentence shall be executed by lethal injection, unless the person sentenced to death affirmatively elects to be executed by electrocution or nitrogen hypoxia. The sentence shall be executed pursuant to Section 15-18-82.
This means Williams would have to elect to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia or electrocution.
Alabama made headlines earlier this year after using nitrogen hypoxia to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith in January.
The 2020 American Veterinary Medical Association guidelines for euthanasia of animals warned against using nitrogen hypoxia in mammals other than pigs.
