Alabama death row inmates seek more state-funded appeals

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama death row inmates are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appeals court decision that said the state isn't required to pay for poor prisoners to have more than one round of appeals in capital cases.

In documents filed Monday, the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative said Alabama is the only state that does not provide assistance to death row inmates needing an attorney after their first round of appeals.
The appeal, filed on behalf of death row prisoners, asks that the Supreme Court review a decision reached by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 2002.

In that ruling, the appeals court said Alabama's death row inmates weren't guaranteed legal aid for later appeals under federal law.

Plaintiffs in the suit, which seeks class-action status, include six current death row inmates who sued Prison Commissioner Richard Allen and Gov. Bob Riley.

Speaking on behalf of the state, Alabama solicitor Kevin Newsom said: "The state fully believes that the 11th Circuit Court was right."
The executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson, said the appeal hinges on the argument that Alabama violates the Sixth and Eighth Amendments because it is impossible for inmates to do work necessary on their appeals without legal assistance.

Stevenson said 1,100 people have been executed nationwide over the last two decades. During the same period, 127 condemned inmates were exonerated, mostly in later appeals that are nearly impossible for poor inmates in Alabama to pursue because of a lack of state funding.
"That's one in eight," Stevenson said Wednesday. "If you say you want the death penalty, you ought to want it to be fair."

At the time the suit was filed in 2001, 40 inmates on Alabama's Death Row lacked legal representation.

http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-28/1176410472298450.xml&storylist=alabamanews

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