The Attorney General filed a “Notice” recently with the Alabama Supreme Court on the pending case of Ex Parte Rashad Stoves regarding the status of juvenile capital murder in Alabama. Wendell Sheffield has opposed this notice stating that the Attorney General is creating law from thin air, changing their position, and violating the Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure.
The Solicitor General is quoted as saying, “On the one hand, they agree with us that the constitution requires judges to have power to impose a lesser sentence than life without parole in capital-murder cases involving juveniles. On the other hand, they are arguing that the constitution gives the courts no power to choose anything less than life without parole in Alabama.”
Mr. Sheffield continues to say, as he has from the beginning, that the US Constitution requires a lesser sentence whereas Alabama’s current laws forbid it; a quick reading of the pleadings in Ex Parte Rashad Stoves would illustrate this simple point.
For more see:
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/05/alabamas_attorney_general_juve.html