During the 2025 Legislative Session, state Representative Phillip Pettus, R-Killen, sponsored a bill that looked to prohibit Alabama judges from granting youthful offender status to anyone 16 years of age or older who is charged with murder or capital murder. The bill passed out of the House, but ultimately failed to pass into law before the end of the session. Now, Pettus is refiling a new version of the legislation ahead of the 2026 session.
The legislation, now prefiled as House Bill 11, would mandate that any Alabamian charged with committing murder or capital murder when they were at least 16 years old be “charged, arrested, and tried as an adult.”
While the text of HB11 is largely identical to Pettus’ previous version of the bill, it does include a new stipulation which clarifies that its provisions “shall not bar an individual from being eligible for application for youthful offender status if the initial charge of capital murder… is reduced to a lesser charge.”…