Alabama: Where judges sentence criminals to death over a jury's wishes

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

So apparently, Alabama has this super cool judicial override rule. If a jury decides that you should spend life in prison instead of being put to death, a judge can say, "no, you know what, the jury got it wrong, I say you die." And then you go to jail and you get put to death.

This is a thing that has happened over 100 times in Alabama. Alabama is one of only three states that allows judicial override, and is the only one that has done it in practice. Over a hundred times.

This seems like an incredibly unconstitutional thing. The U.S. Supreme Court has considered taking the issue on, but no dice so far.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/us/justices-may-weigh-cases-of-alabama-judges-overriding-juries.html?_r=1

https://www.aclu.org/blog/capital-punishment-criminal-law-reform-prisoners-rights/how-did-lifelong-prison-sentence-iraq-v

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

    Wow, that's bad. I would seriously consider nullifying if I were on a jury in Alabama.

And the judge can just overrule your nullification! Fun state to face a court in.