The Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, seen on January 24, 2023. A post-conviction hearing for death row inmates, known as Rule 32, is difficult to secure. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 overruled the state’s appellate courts, which had held that a death row inmate was not entitled to a Rule 32 hearing despite two of his attorneys abandoning the case without his knowledge. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
A person facing capital punishment in Alabama has several rounds of appeals. One, a post-conviction process known in Alabama as Rule 32, allows defendants to raise questions about the process that led to their death sentence.
But almost alone in the nation, Alabama does not recognize a right for death row inmates to have an attorney when applying for a Rule 32 petition, a long and often expensive process requiring legal expertise and resources to win acceptance. The state will only appoint an attorney if a court accepts the petition — a long shot if an inmate didn’t have an attorney during the application process.