Alabama senator to try death penalty moratorium for 8th time
1/29/2008, 6:32 p.m. ET
By PHILLIP RAWLS
The Associated Press   

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The third time wasn't the charm for state Sen. Hank Sanders.

Neither was the fourth, fifth, six or seventh time.

But Sanders isn't giving up.

The Selma Democrat announced Tuesday that when the Legislature convenes Feb. 5, he will again sponsor legislation to place a three-year moratorium on executions in Alabama.

Legislative records show Sanders has been introducing the moratorium bill annually since at least 2001, but it has never been approved by the Senate, much less the House.

Sanders was joined at a windy outdoor news conference Tuesday by supporters of his bill. Judy Cumbee, first vice president of the Alabama New South Coalition, said the wind was symbolic.

"These are winds of change," she said as she brushed her hair out of her face.

Cumbee, Sanders and others said there is growing concern in Alabama about the fairness of the death penalty, and that is causing more people to support a moratorium while officials look at how the law is administered.

Opposition to Sanders' legislation remains strong in a victims' support group.

Miriam Shehane, founder of Victims of Crime and Leniency, said a moratorium "is the most heartless thing I can imagine. Walk a mile in our shoes."

Shehane's daughter, Quenette, was kidnapped and killed in Birmingham on Dec. 20, 1976. One killer was executed, another is serving life in prison without parole, and another has a life sentence.

Shehane said it already takes many years of legal reviews before an execution can be carried out, and one inmate convicted of killing an Alabama sheriff has been on death row for 26 years.

Sanders' supporters said executing someone does not bring back the victim, and the state shouldn't respond to a murder by having a state-sponsored killing.

"We can't take two wrongs and make a right," said the Rev. Alan Forte of Eufaula, representing the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Sanders' moratorium bill would do more than impose a three-year ban. It would also require changes in the way attorneys are appointed to represent indigent clients and would implement U.S. Supreme Court rulings against executing anyone who was mentally retarded or under 18 years old when their crime occurred.

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