The Alabama Senate gave final approval to a bill Thursday that would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for those convicted of sexual assault of a child under the age of 12, setting up a possible court battle over its constitutionality.
House Bill 41, sponsored by Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, passed the Senate 33-1 with no changes. It goes to Gov. Kay Ivey.
Sen. April Weaver, R-Hoover, who sponsored the Senate version of the legislation, cited the discovery of a child sex trafficking ring last summer in Bibb County, in her district.
“I believe child sexual abuses like this deserve the death penalty,” Weaver said. “Crimes against our precious children are the worst of the worst offenses and deserve the worst of the worst punishment.”
The bill challenges Kennedy v. Louisiana, a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a case from Louisiana, that declared the death penalty for child sexual assault unconstitutional. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said that imposing the death penalty in those cases could discourage reporting and increase the risk that a victim could be murdered by an abuser. Kennedy also noted the child at the center of the case had to testify multiple times during the process, exposing her to trauma.
“In cases like this, the key testimony is not just from the family but from the victim herself,” Kennedy wrote. “During formative years of her adolescence, made all the more daunting for having to come to terms with the brutality of her experience, (the victim) was required to discuss the case at length with law enforcement personnel.”
Last year, the bill passed in the House but did not make it to the Senate floor.
Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, was the sole no vote, as she was when the bill passed Senate committee on Wednesday. Figures cited her opposition to the death penalty.
“I don’t believe that the death penalty actually deters anyone from crime or committing certain crimes,” Figures said. “I think it’s a worse penalty for that person to have to sit in jail every day and think about what they’ve done and not be able to see the light of day in terms of freedom after that.”
Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, said that while he believes the death penalty is wrong, cases like the one in Bibb County, which is just north of Singleton’s district, made him reconsider.
“That picture of what went on in that county becomes my kryptonite,” Singleton said. “If it was my daughter, we wouldn’t even talk about this case, because you would’ve been locking Bobby Singleton up.”
Weaver said in an interview after the Senate adjourned that she believes in the state’s justice system to accurately prosecute accused defendants.
“I believe there’s a special place in hell for people who do this to our children,” Weaver said. “Today, we’re one step closer to having a special place for them in Alabama, and that’s on death row in the death chamber at Holman Prison.”
The bill goes to Gov. Kay Ivey to be signed into law. It was one of her priorities in her last State of the State address last month.
“We have to do everything we can to protect Alabama’s children,” Ivey said in a statement posted to social media.
Several conservative-led states have passed similar laws aimed at challenging Kennedy v. Louisiana. The attorney general of Florida, which approved the death penalty for child sexual assault in 2023, said in November the state would seek to impose the death penalty against a man indicted for raping multiple children.
Read more at AlabamaReflector.com.