It is a busy and interesting time for Alabama lawmakers. The Legislature’s 2025 Session is well underway, having begun in February, and is scheduled to adjourn on May 15. As always, the Legislature addresses numerous bills that must pass through the House, Senate, and be signed by the governor before becoming laws. However, this year’s Session may turn out to be one of the most influential and impactful in Alabama’s recent history, thanks to one proposed bill in particular: HB49.

Sponsored by Rep. Matt Simpson (R-Daphne), HB49 seeks to broaden the application of capital punishment, with particular focus towards punishing individuals who have been convicted of raping or sodomizing a child younger than 12 years of age. According to Simpson, a crime characterized by depriving a child’s innocence is “the worst of the worst,” so the commensurate remedy is the death penalty- the worst of the worst punishments. Simpson further argues that offenders of such crimes cannot be rehabilitated, so any efforts taken in attempt to reform them should be abandoned. He eagerly awaits the bill’s consideration by the Senate.

As they currently exist, first-degree rape and sodomy are classified by the Code of Alabama 1975 as Class A felonies. In practice, first-degree offenses of rape and sodomy would be redefined as capital offenses in the event the victim of these crimes is 12 years old or younger, with the option for the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as applicable punishments.

In addition to broadening the application of Alabama’s death penalty, HB49 could result in Alabama chartering areas of legal uncertainty. In particular, the bill contradicts the precedent set by Kennedy v. Louisiana from 2008. In this landmark decision, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits states from using the death penalty for crimes where the victim does not die or where the victim’s death is unintentional, as doing so would violate the cruel and unusual punishment clause. Significantly, the Court arrived at this decision by upholding that the death penalty is a disproportionate punishment for these types of crimes- the opposite of Rep. Simpson’s rationale in his support for HB49.

If the bill passes, Alabama would not be the first state to defy the Supreme Court’s Kennedy decision. The governors of Florida, Tennessee, and most recently, Idaho, have signed bills into law that allow an option for capital punishment in cases of child rape. In each of these instances, support for these laws is largely motivated by a belief that aggravated child rape and similar crimes are of a particularly heinous nature whose only suitable punishment is the death penalty.

When the Supreme Court made its decision in Kennedy, it evoked an “evolving standards of decency” test, part of which involved gauging a national consensus of the death penalty. The Court looked to state legislatures, their histories, and the trending number of executions, concluding that there was a national consensus against the death penalty.

This test, in addition to the change in the Supreme Court’s sitting justices since its 2008 decision, suggests that a national consensus against capital punishment held today may look different from a consensus held seventeen years ago. Rep. Simpson’s eager support for HB49 and the passing of similar bills in three other states are all predicated on the notion that child rape and sodomy crimes are more than egregious enough to warrant the death penalty as a suitable option- a clear departure from what was concluded in Kennedy.

With momentum on its side, I expect the bill to be passed into law and hope that it does. States are individually allowed to decide on the legality of the death penalty- some states use it more often than others, others seldom use it, and nearly half of them have abolished it altogether. As such, if a state decides that its use should apply to crimes that are so unspeakably heinous that no punishment on earth could rectify them, I believe it is within the state’s rights to do so. The Kennedy decision was an overstep of the Court’s power and struck down laws that I believe most would agree appropriately placed crimes such as child rape in the same category as aggravated murder, where the death penalty may apply.

Even if the Alabama Senate does not pass HB49, or it is vetoed by Governor Ivey, its introduction is of legal interest because it openly challenges a landmark Supreme Court decision. This decision has been challenged elsewhere on similar grounds, and the Supreme Court’s response to these defiant laws will be met with similar interest.

If you have a Federal Criminal case, a State Criminal case, a Municipal Case or a Family Law case, contact Joe Ingram or Joe Joe Ingram Law, LLC at 205-335-2640. Get Relief * Get Results.