HOUSTON COUNTY: Someone asked what is the difference in murder and capital murder. On Saturday Dothan Police made an arrest in the murder which occured in the parking lot of Houligan’s. The suspect was charged with murder. The sentence is a minimum of 10 years to life in the Alabama Department of Corrections.
On Friday Houston County Sheriff Department arrested four persons who are charged with Capital Murder. The sentence, if convicted, is life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
The cases are assigned to Houston County District Court Judge Benjamin Lewis. Following Grand Jury the cases will be assigned to a Circuit Court Judge. To retain an attorney to represent someone on Capital Murder would cost someone in excess of $ 50,000.00. These four defendants will most likely have court appointed attorney’s. To serve as counsel the attorney must have 10 years of experience in the practice of law.
Below is copied from the Code of Alabama. To be charged with Capital Murder there must be another offense. The four charged with Capital Murder shot through a window of the house which was occupied. That makes the offense Capital Murder.
In Capital Murder cases, if defendant is found guilty, there is another trial on sentencing fpr the jury to determine Life Without Possibliity of Parole or the death penalty.
A death penalty case is complex, which requires a lot of motions and hearings to create the record. Realizing the death penalty takes years because those cases are automatically appealed and go on for years and years. While a person sits in jail cell for decades. A prison cell (also known as a jail cell) is a small room in a prison or police station where a prisoner is held. Cells greatly vary by their furnishings, hygienic services, and cleanliness, both across countries and based on the level of punishment to which the prisoner being held has been sentenced. Cells can be occupied by one or multiple prisoners depending on factors that include, but are not limited to, inmate population, facility size, resources, or inmate behavior.
Section 13A-6-2 Murder.
(a) A person commits the crime of murder if he or she does any of the following:
(1) With intent to cause the death of another person, he or she causes the death of that person or of another person.
(2) Under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, he or she recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to a person other than himself or herself, and thereby causes the death of another person.
(3) He or she commits or attempts to commit arson in the first degree, burglary in the first or second degree, escape in the first degree, kidnapping in the first degree, rape in the first degree, robbery in any degree, sodomy in the first degree, aggravated child abuse under Section 26-15-3.1, or any other felony clearly dangerous to human life and, in the course of and in furtherance of the crime that he or she is committing or attempting to commit, or in immediate flight therefrom, he or she, or another participant if there be any, causes the death of any person.
(4) He or she commits the crime of arson and a qualified governmental or volunteer firefighter or other public safety officer dies while performing his or her duty resulting from the arson.
(b) A person does not commit murder under subdivisions (a)(1) or (a)(2) of this section if he or she was moved to act by a sudden heat of passion caused by provocation recognized by law, and before there had been a reasonable time for the passion to cool and for reason to reassert itself. The burden of injecting the issue of killing under legal provocation is on the defendant, but this does not shift the burden of proof. This subsection does not apply to a prosecution for, or preclude a conviction of, manslaughter or other crime.
(c) Murder is a Class A felony; provided, that the punishment for murder or any offense committed under aggravated circumstances by a person 18 years of age or older, as provided by Article 2 of Chapter 5 of this title, is death or life imprisonment without parole, which punishment shall be determined and fixed as provided by Article 2 of Chapter 5 of this title or any amendments thereto. The punishment for murder or any offense committed under aggravated circumstances by a person under the age of 18 years, as provided by Article 2 of Chapter 5, is either life imprisonment without parole, or life, which punishment shall be determined and fixed as provided by Article 2 of Chapter 5 of this title or any amendments thereto and the applicable Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure.
If the defendant is sentenced to life on a capital offense, the defendant must serve a minimum of 30 years, day for day, prior to first consideration of parole.
CAPITAL MURDER – LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE OR DEATH PENALTY
(1) CAPITAL OFFENSE. An offense for which a defendant shall be punished by a sentence of death or life imprisonment without parole, or in the case of a defendant who establishes that he or she was under the age of 18 years at the time of the capital offense, life imprisonment, or life imprisonment without parole, according to the provisions of this article.
(2) DURING. The term as used in Section 13A-5-40(a) means in the course of or in connection with the commission of, or in immediate flight from the commission of the underlying felony or attempt thereof.
Section 13A-5-45 Sentence Hearing – Delay; Statements and Arguments; Admissibility of Evidence; Burden of Proof; Mitigating and Aggravating Circumstances.
(a) Upon conviction of a defendant for a capital offense, the trial court shall conduct a separate sentence hearing to determine whether the defendant shall be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole or to death. The sentence hearing shall be conducted as soon as practicable after the defendant is convicted. Provided, however, if the sentence hearing is to be conducted before the trial judge without a jury or before the trial judge and a jury other than the trial jury, as provided elsewhere in this article, the trial court with the consent of both parties may delay the sentence hearing until it has received the pre-sentence investigation report specified in Section 13A-5-47(b). Otherwise, the sentence hearing shall not be delayed pending receipt of the pre-sentence investigation report.
(b) The state and the defendant shall be allowed to make opening statements and closing arguments at the sentence hearing. The order of those statements and arguments and the order of presentation of the evidence shall be the same as at trial.
(c) At the sentence hearing evidence may be presented as to any matter that the court deems relevant to sentence and shall include any matters relating to the aggravating and mitigating circumstances referred to in Sections 13A-5-49, 13A-5-51, and 13A-5-52. Evidence presented at the trial of the case may be considered insofar as it is relevant to the aggravating and mitigating circumstances without the necessity of re-introducing that evidence at the sentence hearing, unless the sentence hearing is conducted before a trial judge other than the one before whom the defendant was tried or a jury other than the trial jury before which the defendant was tried.
(d) Any evidence which has probative value and is relevant to sentence shall be received at the sentence hearing regardless of its admissibility under the exclusionary rules of evidence, provided that the defendant is accorded a fair opportunity to rebut any hearsay statements. This subsection shall not be construed to authorize the introduction of any evidence secured in violation of the Constitution of the United States or the State of Alabama.
(e) At the sentence hearing the state shall have the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of any aggravating circumstances. Provided, however, any aggravating circumstance which the verdict convicting the defendant establishes was proven beyond a reasonable doubt at trial shall be considered as proven beyond a reasonable doubt for purposes of the sentence hearing.
(f) Unless at least one aggravating circumstance as defined in Section 13A-5-49 exists, the sentence shall be life imprisonment without parole.
(g) The defendant shall be allowed to offer any mitigating circumstance defined in Sections 13A-5-51 and 13A-5-52. When the factual existence of an offered mitigating circumstance is in dispute, the defendant shall have the burden of interjecting the issue, but once it is interjected the state shall have the burden of disproving the factual existence of that circumstance by a preponderance of the evidence.
Aggravating circumstances shall be any of the following:
(1) The capital offense was committed by a person under sentence of imprisonment.
(2) The defendant was previously convicted of another capital offense or a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person.
(3) The defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons.
(4) The capital offense was committed while the defendant was engaged or was an accomplice in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight after committing, or attempting to commit, rape, robbery, burglary, or kidnapping.
(5) The capital offense was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or effecting an escape from custody.
(6) The capital offense was committed for pecuniary gain.
(7) The capital offense was committed to disrupt or hinder the lawful exercise of any governmental function or the enforcement of laws.
(8) The capital offense was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel compared to other capital offenses.
(9) The defendant intentionally caused the death of two or more persons by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct.
(10) The capital offense was one of a series of intentional killings committed by the defendant.
(11) The capital offense was committed when the victim was less than 14 years of age.
(12) The capital offense was committed by the defendant in the presence of a child under the age of 14 years at the time of the offense, if the victim was the parent or legal guardian of the child. For the purposes of this subdivision, “in the presence of a child” means in the physical presence of a child or having knowledge that a child is present and may see or hear the act.
(13) The victim of the capital offense was any police officer, sheriff, deputy, state trooper, federal law enforcement officer, or any other state or federal peace officer of any kind, or prison or jail guard, while the officer or guard was on duty, regardless of whether the defendant knew or should have known the victim was an officer or guard on duty, or because of some official or job-related act or performance of the officer or guard.
(14) The victim of the capital offense was a first responder who was operating in an official capacity. For the purposes of this subdivision, first responder includes emergency medical services personnel licensed by the Alabama Department of Public Health, as well as firefighters and volunteer firefighters as defined by Section 36-32-1.
Mitigating circumstances shall include, but not be limited to. the following:
(1) The defendant has no significant history of prior criminal activity;
(2) The capital offense was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance;
(3) The victim was a participant in the defendant’s conduct or consented to it;
(4) The defendant was an accomplice in the capital offense committed by another person and his participation was relatively minor;
(5) The defendant acted under extreme duress or under the substantial domination of another person;
(6) The capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired; and
(7) The age of the defendant at the time of the crime.
