There is significant reason for concern about the use of the death penalty in Alabama.

There are many aspects of Alabama’s capital punishment system one should find troubling, including the high rate of executions, nation-leading (per capita) number of new death sentences, lack of adequate counsel, judicial override, lack of intellectual capacity standards, racial disparity and exorbitant cost.

In addition to these issues within the system, an issue of particularly concern should be the possibility of the execution of an innocent person. It is not possible to be accurate 100% of the time, and the finality of the death penalty is an unconscionable and unnecessary risk.

For these reasons, and others, Senate Bills (SB) 30-34 proposed by Senator Hank Sanders, are imperative steps to, at the very least, reform egregious deficiencies within the system. We particularly support SB30, repeal of the death penalty, and SB33, to impose a 3 year moratorium on the use of the death penalty.