This is a guest opinion column
The same Governor who abolished judicial overrides in Alabama has an opportunity to cement her legacy and uphold the unconstitutionality of this outdated legal procedure by sparing Jeffrey Lee’s life, who is set for execution on June 11th.
On her first day in office in 2017, Governor Kay Ivey signed the bill abolishing judicial override. Alabama became the last state to end the outdated practice of allowing trial judges to override a jury’s verdict of life in prison and impose a death sentence. When we talked to Lee’s attorney, MiAngel Cody, she shared, “Judicial override has been widely criticized as unconstitutional because it erases jury verdicts and replaces the voice of the people with the voice of a single elected judge.” Juries protect our right to a fair and just trial; replacing the voice of our peers with one judge’s voice is contrary to the democracy that all of our country proudly supports…