On Friday the Alabama Supreme Court voted 5-4 to overturn the death sentence of Anthony Lane instead directing a Jefferson County judge to sentence him to life without possibility of parole.
The ruling came after the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered Alabama's courts to reconsider the death sentence in 2015, citing cases that say states can't execute people with mental disabilities. However, even after that, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals had reaffirmed that Lane should get the death penalty and the narrow ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court demonstrate how Alabama does cling to the death penalty.
In our neighboring state of TN we are following an appeal filed by that state’s death row inmates which challenges TN’s execution process and claims that Billy Ray Irick was tortured to death during his August 9, 2018 execution according to one the nation's leading anesthesiologists. In an affidavit submitted to the Tennessee Supreme Court on September 6, anesthesiologist Dr. David Lubarsky, the Vice Chancellor for Human Health Sciences at the University of California-Davis Health, said Irick was not properly anesthetized during his execution and experienced the torturous effects of the second and third lethal-injection drugs while still conscious.
On Saturday Esther will be attending Alabama New South Coalition’s Fall Membership Convention in Montgomery. We appreciate all our sister organizations but must admit to having special affection for ANSC, not only because it was the first organization I joined after moving to Alabama but because of its connection to Senator Hank Sanders.
September is a busy birthday month for us and so we thought we would celebrate two today. Our Information Director Randy Lewis’s birthday is today and our Chairman Anthony Tyson’s birthday is on Sunday. And yes, we sang twice as loud! Happy Birthday to both!