New sheriff in town: Gov. Jeff Landry ready to reverse Edwards’ criminal justice policy

BY: PIPER HUTCHINSON - FEBRUARY 19, 2024 

Longer sentences, more executions and harsher penalties for juveniles. These are among the proposals Gov. Jeff Landry wants the Republican-supermajority Louisiana Legislature to approve in a special session on crime. 

The self-styled, tough-on-crime GOP governor also wants to allow people to carry concealed firearms without a permit, place more police in New Orleans, expanded immunity for law enforcement and provide more public access to juvenile records. 

In his speech Monday to lawmakers to start the session, Landry said he’s thinking of victims. 

“Today, I ask you to place the voices of the tired, the weary and the broken-hearted victims of crime in this state above the irresponsible rhetoric that is destroying our quality of life,” Landry said. 

The governor’s requests, and others from far-right lawmakers, amount to a near-complete rollback of Louisiana’s 2017 criminal justice overhaul under former Gov. John Bel Edwards. That bipartisan effort was meant to save the state money by reducing its nation-leading incarceration rate, shortening non-violent criminal sentences and providing flexibility on parole. 

Landry opposed those measures as attorney general and is seizing his first opportunity as governor to roll back the changes. 

“As attorney general, I warned that the goal of criminal justice reform should not be about letting people out of jail, but how to keep people from going to jail,” Landry said. “Those warnings went unheeded.” 

Edwards’ criminal justice reinvestment initiative resulted in the state spending millions less on incarceration and using some of that money for crime victim services. The proposals from Landry and Republican legislators could undo those savings and perhaps cost the state additional money. 

A proposal that Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, a former prosecutor, has submitted would effectively eliminate parole in Louisiana, except for groups from whom it is constitutionally required — including those sentenced to life terms as juveniles. 

Villio’s House Bill 9 could cost the state more than $14 million annually, according to a fiscal note generated by the Legislative Fiscal Office. 

Landry said fiscal impact shouldn’t be the deciding factor for lawmakers. 

“While many say focus on the cost, I say focus on the cost to society. I say focus on the cost to our citizens in loss of property, in the disruption of their lives and in the irreparable tragedy of losing a loved one,” the governor said. 

In the audience for Landry’s speech at the State Capitol were victims of violent crime, relatives of murder victims and law enforcement leaders. The governor told the Legislature these three groups represent his priorities.

“The propensity of some to signal their virtuous compassion for criminals has become a liberal custom to many, without forethought of the consequences to society and the danger it creates in our neighborhoods and homes,” Landry said. 

While the governor insisted criminal justice reform should be about preventing crime, he offered few proposals addressing this aim.  

“Every proposal that his team has put forward is reactive. None of it will help to reduce crime and keep our community safe,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Matthew Willard said at a press conference after Landry’s speech. 

“If we want to talk about addressing crime, we need to talk about mental health, substance use disorder, reentry programs and eliminating barriers for kids coming home from prison so that they can successfully reintegrate into society,” Willard added. 

Democrats noted none of their members were consulted in putting together the call for the special session, resulting in an agenda in which few bipartisan measures will even be discussed. 

Along with a lack of bipartisanship came a lack of transparency, Democrats argued — despite Landry’s overtures toward openness in his speech. 

“The lack of transparency in our criminal justice system is unacceptable,” Landry said. 

House Republicans moved to suspend the rules on each of their proposals, allowing them to be heard in committee the next day. Despite Democratic objection, Republicans used their supermajority to fast-track the bills. That means the public will have less time to process a serious policy proposal, Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, said. 

The Landry-backed bill to expand the methods by which Louisiana executes people also limits transparency. 

House Bill 6, by Rep. Nicholas Muscarello, R-Hammond, would add electrocution and nitrogen gas inhalation to the acceptable methods of execution. It also shields all records related to the execution, including which companies provide execution drugs and how much they cost, from public disclosure. If anybody were to leak those records, they could face jail time. 

Louisiana banned use of the electric chair in 1991, when it was last used, in favor of lethal injection.  

Landry’s vision of transparency involves public access to juvenile justice records that are typically shielded to protect minors’ right to privacy. 

“Our transparency legislation will allow people to access this information and provide online access to the data from our criminal and juvenile courts,” Landry said. “Through this simple and common-sense measure, we hope to ease the suffering of victims, offer more transparency in the legal process, and find better solutions to our crime problem.” 

Democrats say the proposal would punish children who commit offenses well into their adulthood. 

“We don’t want to penalize juveniles by having those records public and having them exposed as adults for something that they did in childhood,” Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, said. 

This article originally appeared in Louisiana Illuminator on February 19th, 2023. 

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Gaza: Israeli advance on Rafah would have ‘dire humanitarian consequences’

 19 February 2024 Peace and Security

An extension of Israel’s military operation in Rafah, where over a million internally displaced Palestinians have been forced to shelter, will have “dire humanitarian consequences”, the UN Senior Humanitarian Coordinator for Gaza said on Monday.

Sigrid Kaag reiterated Secretary-General António Guterres’s concern that such an operation at present time would be potentially disastrous for innocent civilians.

“There are more than a million people crammed in Rafah. It's not intended for a million people in shelters, in random sort of plastic sheeted constructions. Health conditions are very worrisome,” she told correspondents in Brussels after briefing European Union foreign ministers.

She also voiced deep concern over getting aid into the Gaza Strip and distributing it to those in need.

“We have to acknowledge the fact that the security conditions, separate from military operations, due to what is called self-distribution by desperate civilians, but also looting and criminalization, is hampering efforts by the humanitarian community…to deliver assistance to the people that actually need it,” she said.

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More needs to be done 

Also on Monday, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, visited the Gaza Strip, where he met with internally displaced families.

He also met with NGO and UN personnel the see the challenges they face first hand, including the breakdown of law and order which is impacting the distribution of humanitarian supplies.

“It’s clear that more needs to be done,” UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told correspondents in New York at the regular press briefing.

“The UN needs the tools to deliver on the ground, including the need for Israel to allow entry of items critical to UN operations and to improve deconfliction,” he added. 

Continued hostilities

Intense Israeli bombardment from air, land and sea continues across much of the war-torn enclave, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction of civilian infrastructure.

Widespread ground operations and heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups also continue to be reported, especially in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, OCHA said in a flash update on Monday.

Between 17 and 19 February, dozens of rockets were also reportedly fired by armed Palestinians toward Israel, it added.

Nasser hospital evacuations

Furthermore, the Israeli military operation in the Nasser Hospital complex in Khan Younis have continued, OCHA said, noting that on Sunday, the UN and the Palestine Red Crescent Society evacuated 14 patients. Negotiations are ongoing for the evacuation of the remaining patients.

According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), over 180 patients and 15 doctors and nurses remain inside the hospital.

“The hospital is still experiencing an acute shortage of food, basic medical supplies, and oxygen. There is no tap water and no electricity, except a backup generator maintaining some lifesaving machines,” WHO said.

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‘Steep rise’ in child malnutrition

UN agencies on Monday warned of a steep rise in malnutrition among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women, posing grave threat to health.

The situation is especially serious in north Gaza, which has been almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, and where one in six children under the age of two is acutely malnourished.

The situation is not much better in southern Gaza Strip the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), WHO and the World Food Programme (WFP), said in a new report.

In Rafah, where aid has been more available, five per cent of children under two are acutely malnourished.

“This is clear evidence that access to humanitarian aid is needed and can help prevent the worst outcomes,” the agencies said, reiterating the call to protect Rafah from the threat of intensified military operations. 

West Bank violence

OCHA also reported further violent incidents in the West Bank over the weekend, claiming both Israeli and Palestinian lives.

On 16 February, two Israeli men were shot and killed in southern Israel, and four others including a child were injured, by a Palestinian man from Shu’fat refugee camp in East Jerusalem. The Palestinian man was then shot and killed by an armed Israeli civilian.

On Sunday, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men in Tulkarm Refugee camp, during an exchange of fire with a Palestinian man whose body was later withheld by Israeli forces from being handed over.

The second fatality was an unarmed Palestinian who was reportedly killed by an Israeli army sniper while standing on the rooftop of his house, OCHA said.

Between 7 October 2023 and 18 February, 393 Palestinians have been killed, including 100 children, and 4,511 Palestinians, including 699 children, have been injured in conflict-related incidents across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.  

During the same period, 12 Israelis, including four members of Israeli forces, were killed and 80 injured in conflict-related incidents in the same areas, according to OCHA.

World court asked for legal opinion

Meanwhile, at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is holding a hearing concerning an advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

The advisory, non-binding, opinion on the occupation was requested by the General Assembly in December 2022.

The hearings will be held from 19 to 26 February, with over 50 countries, groups and the State of Palestine scheduled to speak.

This article originally appeared in UN News on February 19th, 2023. 

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ICJ Hearings to Examine 57 Years of Israeli Occupation of Palestine

By Brett Wilkins

"Decades of injustice will finally face scrutiny," said U.N. human rights official Francesca Albanese ahead of next week's Hague hearings on the legal consequences of Israel's illegal occupation.

More than 50 countries are set to participate in next week's hearings at the International Court of Justice focusing on Israel's illegal 57-year occupation of Palestine, a forum that follows the Hague tribunal's finding last month that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in occupied Gaza.

The ICJ—also known as the World Court—will hold a week of hearings on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of Palestine, which dates to the Israeli conquest of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, Syrian Golan Heights, and Egyptian Sinai Peninsula during the 1967 Six-Day War.

"The International Court of Justice is set for the first time to broadly consider the legal consequences of Israel's nearly six-decades-long occupation and mistreatment of the Palestinian people," Human Rights Watch senior legal adviser Clive Baldwin said in a statement. "Governments that are presenting their arguments to the court should seize these landmark hearings to highlight the grave abuses Israeli authorities are committing against Palestinians, including the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution."

The West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights remain under Israeli military occupation six decades after their conquest. The United Nations—to which the ICJ belongs—and many international NGOs contend that, despite removing its troops and settlers from Gaza two decades ago, Israel continues to occupy Gaza by controlling the besieged enclave's airspace, territorial waters, and the entry and exit of people and goods.

Since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have killed or wounded more than 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza while forcibly displacing around 90% of the population. Numerous Israeli leaders have called for the renewed physical occupation, Jewish resettlement, and ethnic cleansing of the strip.

During the current assault on Gaza, occupation forces have also killed at least 388 Palestinians, including 99 children, in the West Bank, according to U.N. human rights officials.

Israeli settlers have for decades been steadily colonizing the occupied territories under the protection of the IDF, while ethnically cleansing Palestinians whose lands and homes they steal.

Next week's hearings come on the heels of the ICJ's provisional ruling last month in a case led by South Africa—which will be the first nation after Palestine to present at next week's hearing—that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza. The tribunal ordered Israel to "take all measures within its power" to adhere to its obligations under Article II of the Genocide Convention.

Earlier this week, South Africa urgently appealed to the ICJ to act amid the looming threat of an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah. More than 1.5 million Palestinians, most of them refugees ordered to flee to the south of Gaza by invading Israeli forces, are crammed into what is now one of the world's most densely populated places.

On Friday, the ICJ declined to take any additional action against Israel, while reiterating that the "perilous situation" in Rafah "demands immediate and effective implementation of the provisional measures indicated by the court" in last month's ruling.

This article originally appeared in Common Dreams on February 16th, 2024.  

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Fulton DA delivers fiery testimony against Trump, co-defendants quest to disqualify her

By: Stanley Dunlap 

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Thursday fiercely defended herself against allegations of prosecutorial misconduct while she had a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she appointed to oversee the 2020 presidential election interference case.

A surprise appearance in a Fulton County courtroom saw Willis agree to testify in response to defense attorneys and a witness contradicting her statements that she only became romantically involved with Nathan Wade a few months after she hired him as a lead special prosecutor in a sweeping racketeering case charging interference in Georgia’s 2020 election. Former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted by a grand jury in August on charges of illegally trying to alter the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia and several other swing states.

Willis repeatedly denied allegations that she or Wade misappropriated taxpayer funds for personal gain based on her relationship with Wade outside of work. The motion to disqualify her is centered on that issue, as opposed to the just-admitted nature of the romantic relationship between Willis and Wade.

Willis’ appearance also means another day of testimony Friday in the judge’s hearing on defendants’ request to have her disqualified.

Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee scheduled the hearing last month to address whether Willis should be barred from overseeing the election interference case in the future. Wade’s estranged wife revealed in a January divorce filing that airline tickets were purchased for him and Willis for trips to San Francisco and Miami from 2022 to 2023 under Wade’s name on credit cards.

Willis’ harshest barbs Thursday were targeted at Ashleigh Merchant, the attorney for Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, who publicly surfaced the existence of a romance between Willis and Wade in January. Merchant, along with Trump attorney Steve Sadow and others representing co-defendants, raised doubts to the former couple testifying that Willis repaid Wade thousands of dollars in cash for several flights, cruises and other trips they took together while dating from March 2022 until summer 2023.

Merchant repeatedly questioned Willis about whether she tracked each cash payment and why she didn’t provide documents showing withdrawals from her bank account or other financial changes that would support her testimony.

“So you have no proof of any reimbursement for any of these things because it was all cash,” Merchant said to Willis.

Willis called her line of questioning insulting, especially the charge that the DA had started the affair as soon as she met Wade at a 2019 conference. She said she would reimburse Wade for her share of travel expenses with cash she kept at home over time that she incrementally saved. According to her, the largest reimbursement was about $2,500 for one trip.

”The testimony of one witness is enough to prove a fact. Are you telling me that I’m lying to you, is that what you’re intimating here?” Willis asked.

Merchant said Willis should be aware that how she uses public funds will be scrutinized as a district attorney. Since November 2021, Wade’s firm has received more than $650,000 from Fulton County.

“You understand that you’re under a microscope,” Merchant said. “You have reporting requirements to all types of things. You have no record other than your testimony of the money that you’ve given Mr. Wade.”

Willis rejected defense questioning if Wade visited her south Fulton home before Willis launched the investigation into Trump’s role in Georgia’s election. She also reaffirmed her decision to pursue the felony racketeering case against Trump, several members of his inner circle and other Trump supporters because they attempted to illegally influence election results in his favor.

One of Willis’ angry reactions to pointed personal questions led McAfee to order a five-minute break after Willis repeatedly told Merchant “It’s a lie” while holding court documents filed by the Marietta attorney.

“He never came to my house, let alone live with me, as you falsely put in these documents,” Willis said about the residence she lived in during 2019 and 2020.

As pressure mounted in the high-profile case, Willis and Wade ended their relationship last summer, they said. The two continue to be friends as well as professional colleagues, she said.

“Mr. Wade has been my friend since 2020,” Willis said. “He started out as a mentor and professional colleague and he became my friend and somebody that I really respected. I feel very indebted to Mr. Wade for taking on the task of this job.”

On Thursday, defense attorneys also criticized Willis for not listing Wade’s travel expenses on financial disclosure reports that require public officers to disclose gifts of at least $100 or more from anyone contracting with the government.

The district attorney said she never considered the vacations with Wade to be gifts since she would later cover her share of the expenses.

Wade provided his own testimony in advance of Willis’ time on the stand, disputing the testimony of a former longtime friend of Willis, Robin Bryant-Yeartie, who claimed that Wade and Willis were intimate before he began working on the election investigation.

Wade testified that he never discussed his relationship with Bryant-Yeartie or with anyone else in social settings, and that Willis frequently reimbursed him for trips with cash. Occasionally, the two took one-day trips to Tennessee in order to escape the spotlight on Willis as she became well known around Atlanta due to the case, Wade said.  

He told the court that because of a cancer diagnosis in 2020 and 2021, he was focused more on staying healthy rather than dating anyone.

“It wasn’t secret. It was just private,” said Wade, a former prosecutor who also spent a decade as a Cobb County municipal judge. “I wouldn’t have discussed my relationship with Ms. Yeartie or anyone publicly.”

Bryant-Yeartie testified Thursday that she sublet her condo to Willis in April 2021, and that the two were close friends from the early 1990s until March 2022. Bryant-Yeartie said that she was certain that she witnessed Willis and Wade hugging, kissing and holding hands on a few occasions prior to November 2021.

Under cross examination, she acknowledged having a falling out with Willis that ultimately led to the DA telling her to resign or be terminated due to poor job performance.

Reaction split on Willis sparring with defense counsel

The reaction to Willis’ testimony was split along partisan lines with election officials and for many spectators who monitored online livestreams that attracted tens of thousand of people at a given time watching the tense-filled moments play out.

Trump sounded a defiant tone in an interview with Fox News Digital during Willis’s testimony.

“There is no case here,” Trump said. “It is so badly tainted. There is no case here. There was a perfect phone call. It was perfect. But by going after Trump, she’s able to get her boyfriend more money than they ever dreamed possible.”

Legal experts also had mixed reactions to Willis and Wade’s testimony. While some experts criticized Willis for being overly defensive, they also doubted that the defense attorneys had provided enough evidence to remove her from the election interference case.

Norman Eisen, an attorney who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee majority during Trump’s first impeachment and trial, said Willis has so far defended herself from the allegations.

“The spectacle generated by the allegations and by counsel for the defendants today was not pretty,” said Eisen, who also served as ambassador to the Czech Republic during the Obama administration. “But at the end of the day, it is clear that those who are trying to disqualify DA Willis have not met their steep burden under Georgia law to prove a conflict. On the contrary, the judge has made clear that he’s assessing financial benefit, and the unrebutted evidence shows that Wade and Willis split expenses. There was no benefit to Willis.”

Rep. Shea Roberts, House Democratic Caucus treasurer, described Thursday’s hearing as nothing more than a sensationalized attack by Trump on Willis for pursuing charges against him and others. 

“We all heard the smoking gun recording of the phone call in which Trump pressured Secretary (Brad) Raffensperger to alter Georgia’s election results, and no amount of manufactured controversy the Trump team tries to conjure up can change that,” Roberts said in statement.

Georgia Recorder reporter Ross Williams contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared in the Georgia Recorder on February 15th, 2024.  

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North Carolina AG’s office pushes for delay in key Racial Justice Act hearing

Johnston County prosecutor once compared Black defendants to wild dogs and hyenas, hunting their victims “like the predators of the African plain”

A hearing scheduled for later this month could clear a path for the 136 people on North Carolina’s death row to one day get resentenced to life without the possibility of parole — or bring them one step closer to the execution chamber.

Beginning Feb. 26, attorneys are scheduled to present evidence to a Johnston County Superior Court judge arguing that race significantly affected prosecutors’ actions during jury selection, not just in the underlying case of Hasson Bacote, but in capital cases throughout North Carolina. 

But if the state attorney general’s office gets its way, these findings will not be heard in court — at least not this month.

“Racial discrimination in jury selection is abhorrent in all respects and has no place in the criminal justice system,” reads a recent court filing signed by lawyers in the attorney general’s office, including the Attorney General himself, Josh Stein, a Democrat who is running for governor this year. “Nevertheless, like all claims, a claim of racial discrimination cannot be presumed based on the mere assertion of a defendant; it must be proved.”

According to a recent court filing, the evidence to be submitted by Bacote’s lawyers includes several findings:

• In 176 capital cases across North Carolina between 1985 and 2011, Black people were two and a half times more likely to be struck from jury pools than other jurors.
• Similarly, in seven Johnston County capital cases over that same timeframe, Black people were four times more likely to be struck from the jury pool than other jurors.
• In four capital cases in that timeframe tried by Gregory Butler, an assistant district attorney, Black people were 10 times more likely to be struck from a jury pool than other jurors. Butler also prosecuted Bacote, the defendant in the underlying case.

The attorney general’s office, however, called the evidence “insufficiently supported.” It took issue with a study conducted by law professors at Michigan State University, arguing that the state Supreme Court has already deemed that research irrelevant and misleading.

Last year, the state Supreme Court ruled that a study by the same MSU professors was “unreliable and fatally flawed” because it “assumed racial animus in cases in which defendants did not make any such claim, or in which the trial court or appellate courts did not make or sustain any such findings.”

In light of that opinion, the AG’s office asked the trial court judge to deny Bacote’s jury selection claims without holding a hearing. The judge denied the request.

The attorney general’s office is now seeking a second opinion. It has petitioned the state Supreme Court for guidance on how lower courts should use the MSU study in assessing claims of juror discrimination. This decision could drastically impact pending RJA claims, since they rely on the MSU study to support juror discrimination arguments.

Attorney Shelagh Rebecca Kenney, one of the attorneys representing Bacote, filed a motion last week criticizing the AG’s office for trying to derail the pending hearing: “The State appears motivated by its knowledge of the strength of Defendant’s evidence, its reluctance to face that evidence in open court, and its fear of losing.”

The Racial Justice Act’s lead case

Hasson Bacote, who is Black, was sentenced to death in Johnston County in 2009 for a crime he committed when he was 20 years old.

Ten white and two Black jurors convicted Bacote of killing Anthony Surles during a robbery. According to attorney Kenney’s motion, Bacote is one of 11 men sentenced to death in North Carolina after being convicted of first-degree murder solely under the theory of felony murder; that means the killing was not premeditated or deliberate, and instead happened during the commission of another violent felony.

All 11 of those men are people of color.

The core of Bacote’s case is the Racial Justice Act, a landmark law passed by Democrats in 2009, repealed by Republicans in 2013, and preserved by the Democratic-controlled state Supreme Court in 2020. The law gives people on North Carolina’s death row an opportunity to be resentenced to life in prison without parole if they can prove racial discrimination played a role in their death sentence.

The hearing would be the first since 2020, when the Supreme Court ruled that all claims brought under the RJA were still valid and could have their day in court.

Lawyers for the state started sharing discovery with Bacote’s team in 2022, after a Superior Court judge ordered them to turn over data on how prosecutors across North Carolina pick juries in capital cases. Over the past few years, the state has turned over 680,000 pages of discovery, which Kenney called in her motion “the most comprehensive discovery provided by the state on jury selection issues in North Carolina.”

Bacote’s is the RJA’s lead case, which means it will set the standard for how other cases are handled. How the Supreme Court handles the attorney general’s request — or a later appeal — will affect how judges deal with future Racial Justice Act claims.

Lawyers with the Attorney General’s office wrote to the state Supreme Court noting that if the hearing takes place on Feb. 26 as scheduled, it would “waste time and resources if it is later determined on subsequent appeal that the claims should have been dismissed at the pleadings stage.”

Kenney, meanwhile, rebutted that claim. She argued the research referenced by the attorney general’s office dealt with a 2011 MSU study; that data was updated for Bacote’s case, using information gleaned from the hundreds of thousands of documents turned over by the state. That data, she continued, hasn’t ever been presented or considered by any court.

She also contested the relevance of the state Supreme Court ruling referenced by the state, since that ruling explicitly said it did not address the defendant’s RJA claim.

The MSU study is also not the only evidence Bacote’s lawyers plan to use to make their case. Included within those 680,000 documents were prosecutors’ handwritten notes, which Kenney wrote in the motion “reveal that race permeated the State’s approach to jury selection.”

Prosecutors’ notes from various trials show a preoccupation with prospective jurors’ race. In one Washington County case, for instance, a prosecutor wrote that they didn’t want a particular person on the jury out of concern she would be “sympathetic to plight” and that she “had a child by BM [Black Man].” In that same case, a prosecutor scribbled that they wanted one juror who seemed favorable to prosecution, noting she seemed like she would “bring her own rope.”

Race didn’t just figure into jury selection, but into the prosecutor’s racist views as well. Kenney’s motion includes a newspaper article from another of Butler’s capital cases where he compared the Black defendants to wild dogs and hyenas, hunting their victims “like the predators of the African plain.”

The Supreme Court could issue a ruling on the attorney general’s petition as early as the end of this week.

This article originally appeared in NC Newsline on February 7th, 2023. 

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Alabama Department of Corrections seeking over $800 million

By: Ralph Chapoco

Three law enforcement agencies told Alabama legislators Monday they were seeking a total of over $1 billion in funding.

The Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC) is seeking over $800 million from the state. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) is looking for $159 million. The Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles is seeking slightly more than $100 million.

The Alabama Legislature will ultimately decide how much funding the agencies get, and most do not get their full request.

Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, the chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee, noted those requests are higher than they were three years ago, when the agencies asked for roughly $635 million combined.

“I am not trying to cast stones,” Albritton said after the meeting. “I am only trying to do it as a means of education as to how much more money it is taking to do the same old thing.”

While ALEA had the largest increase in percentage terms, DOC made the biggest jump in terms of total dollars. The Legislature budgeted $661.7 million to DOC from the General Fund in 2023. Alabama Department of Corrections Commission John Hamm asked for almost $820 million from lawmakers for the coming fiscal cycle, $158 million higher (24%) than the current year’s budget of $661.7 million.

Bennet Wright, executive director of the Alabama Sentencing Commission, who addressed the joint committee prior to Hamm’s presentation to give members some context regarding the ADOC request, said increased capital costs, increased personnel costs and staffing shortages are  driving up the cost to continuously incarcerate people. Corrections held 20,403 people last November.

“There is a common myth that money travels with offenders in correctional systems, I hear it all the time,” Wright said. “We get 500 people out of prison, and we can save money on the prison system. That is just not true. Most of those costs are fixed costs.”

The DOC spent roughly $145 million in 2002 on personnel, about $240 million in 2012 and roughly $280 million in 2023. Despite that, the number of corrections security staff decreased, going from 3,000 in 2012 to about 1,800 in 2023.

“So, what are some of the things that the state has chosen to do, it has increased correctional officer pay, that has increased,” Wright said. “There has been increases in health insurance over the past 20 years, retirement contributions, et cetera. So, while the officers have gone down, the obligation of the department to pay personnel costs and benefits has increased.”

Vacancies in the department remain. The DOC said in its presentation that 858 of its 3,800 positions (30%), both administrative postings and corrections officers.

Medical costs to address the health care needs for people incarcerated continue to increase, going from $120 million in 2012 to $235 million in 2023.

“I would also point out to people, the state of Alabama was the first state that was taken into federal court on a lot of these issues,” Wright said. “That was 1975. Alabama has been in and out of federal court, whether it is litigation or receiverships oversight, we have new pieces of litigation for the past 50 years. And medical care has been an ongoing thread of a lot of the federal litigation involving our Department of Corrections.”

Hamm said DOC will rely on the construction of a $1 billion men’s prison in Elmore County to improve safety in the department. About 325 people died while incarcerated in Corrections in 2023.

“Every legislator on this dais has received emails about the conditions within our prisons, and the violence within our prisons,” said Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville, who asked how a single-cell design could address the issues.

According to Hamm, about 80% of the inmates are placed into dormitories, spaces with rows of bunk beds where inmates sleep. With the new prison, almost 80% of the population will be in cells.

“If I was a correctional officer in this room, with everybody here, it is going to be a little bit more difficult for me to control everyone in this room as opposed to everyone in their own cell and dealing with you all one at a time,” Hamm said.

ABPP requested slightly more than $100 million, an increase of about 14% from the $87.8 million in funding from the General Fund budget for the current year’s budget. About $52 million of that will go toward personnel costs, with another $20.6 million to fund benefits. The next highest item, utilities, fees and services, will be another $12 million.

“I will say this—the support staff, the officers, one thing I will say, these are some of the hardest working people you will ever know,” said Cam Ward, the director of ABPP. “If you have to go out to someone’s house, you know they violated their parole terms, and you have gone into their home, and they know you are coming, let’s just say it is not always the safest circumstances.”

Ward also addressed the number of people granted parole by the Board of Pardons and Paroles. According to the numbers he presented, the rates have fluctuated between 2% and 18%. The rates were lower in the beginning of 2023 at 2% in January and 5% in February. As of December 2023, it was 18%.

“When you only have two members, if it is a split, one to one vote, it is a denial,” he said.

Ward said target rates for parole are less important, the decision must be made with respect to the individuals.

“Realistically, the peak of the parole grant system was in 2016-2017,” Ward said. “Sometimes it got over 50%. I think realistically, you are probably talking about a number closer to 25%-30% considering the population that is inside DOC. However, I would caution anyone who talks about parole grant rates to not use an arbitrary spreadsheet or number system. I have seen too many articles talk about that. I think it is a mistake. I still think you still have to look at it as the individual, and realize the board still has that discretion as to who they grant or don’t grant.”

ALEA is asking for more money from the Legislature as well, about $44.7 million more (39%) than the $114.3 million the agency is slated to receive this year. That money will be spread across equipment and vehicles, as well as a new driver’s license office in Montgomery.

Rep. Brett Easterbrook, R-Fruitdale, said the request was “a little bit hard to understand for me.” He added he wasn’t opposed to the increase but requested a breakdown of the expenditures from the agency to better understand the reason for the increase.

This article originally appeared in The Alabama Reflector on February 15th, 2024.  

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