Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed
WASHINGTON — Lawyers for an Alabama man due to be executed on Thursday have asked the Supreme Court to step in and stop his execution because of claimed similarities between the death sentencing laws in Alabama and Florida — whose death sentencing scheme was struck down by the justices this past week.
Alabama, like Florida, places the final decision of whether to impose death on the judge — not a jury.
The petition for a writ of certiorari and application for a stay of execution in Christopher Brooks's case were filed at the court after business hours on Tuesday, lawyers for Brooks told BuzzFeed News.
The filings, provided to BuzzFeed News, came hours after the Alabama Supreme Court had denied Brooks's initial request that the state court put his execution on hold while it determined the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Florida case, Hurst v. Florida.
Brooks was sentenced to death in 1993 for the 1992 murder of Jo Deann Campbell. The jury in his case had recommended a death sentence on an 11-1 vote. Judge James Hard, after hearing additional evidence, sentenced Brooks to death.
Read the petition for certiorari:
Read the stay application:
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1ZAmu6J
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