Alabama House committee approves bill imposing death penalty for child sexual assault

by Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
February 5, 2025

Alabama may join Florida and Tennessee in imposing the death penalty for crimes not resulting in a person’s death.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday approved HB 49, sponsored by Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, which would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for adults convicted of raping or sodomizing those younger than 12 years old in lieu of sentencing them to life without the possibility of parole.

Currently, capital murder is only imposed for crimes that resulted in a person’s death, such as kidnapping, robbery, burglary or murdering a law enforcement official.

“This is the worst of the worst offense to me,” Simpson, a former child victims prosecutor in Baldwin County, said in an interview with reporters following the meeting. “If someone gets mad and kills somebody, I can see that more than someone who rapes and takes the innocence of child away who is that young. That person cannot be rehabilitated, that person cannot get back in the streets.”

Originally, the bill stated that the death penalty could be applied if the victim is younger than 6 years old. Currently, people who are found guilty of rape and sodomy of a child younger than 6 years old may only be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa introduced an amendment and members agreed to apply the law for those who are younger than 12 years old.

However, England voted against the legislation. Some civil rights groups at the hearing refused to offer their support.

“The state should not be in the business of killing people,” said Dev Wakeley, worker policy advocate with Alabama Arise.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1977 case of Coker vs. Georgia that the death penalty could only be applied to crimes resulting in death.

Erlich Anthony Coker was sentenced to death by Georgia courts for raping a woman following an escape from a prison, where he was serving several sentences for rape, kidnapping and assault.

In a 7-2 decision, justices of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the punishment was “grossly disproportionate” to the crime. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ruling in Kennedy vs. Louisiana in 2008, involving a defendant sentenced to death for the rape of a child.

A narrow majority of the justices agreed that “applying the death penalty in such a case would be an exercise of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ in violation of a national consensus on the issue.”

Several Republican-led states are hoping to change that idea. Florida in 2023 passed a law to challenge the ruling, as did Tennessee in 2024.

“This is an attempt to challenge that,” Simpson said of his bill.

The bill moves to the Alabama House of Representatives for consideration.

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

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