Criminal Defense in Alabama: how charge pressure and response timing shape the early file

On January 25, 2024, at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, Kenneth Eugene Smith became the first human being executed by nitrogen gas in the history of the world. Alabama had received authorization from the US Supreme Court to proceed with the execution after Smith and the State of Alabama had agreed on the method — pure nitrogen gas delivered through a respirator mask, causing death by anoxia (oxygen deprivation) within minutes. Smith had survived a botched lethal injection attempt in November 2022, when the state was unable to establish an intravenous line within the required timeframe. Following that failed execution, Alabama obtained legislative authorization to use nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative execution method — becoming the first state to execute a condemned prisoner through this mechanism. A second execution by nitrogen gas (Alan Eugene Miller) followed in September 2024. Alabama has thus distinguished itself as the state that introduced nitrogen gas execution to the American criminal justice system, two months before South Carolina carried out its first firing squad execution. Both states' adoption of these alternative methods arose from the same underlying cause: pharmaceutical manufacturers' refusal to supply lethal injection drugs for executions, which exhausted the supply in multiple death-penalty states simultaneously.

Alabama's Habitual Felony Offender Act (HFOA), codified at Ala. Code § 13A-5-9, establishes some of the most severe mandatory minimum sentencing enhancements in the United States for repeat felony offenders. Under the HFOA's escalating structure, a defendant convicted of a Class A felony who has two or more prior felony convictions faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment — with no parole eligibility under the mandatory minimum provisions. A defendant convicted of a Class B felony with three prior felony convictions similarly faces a mandatory life sentence. These mandatory enhancements eliminate judicial discretion in sentencing for qualifying repeat offenders, and they have generated significant constitutional litigation in Alabama courts regarding their application, particularly when prior out-of-state convictions are used to trigger the mandatory life provision. The practical effect in the Jefferson County (Birmingham) and Mobile County court systems — where the highest volumes of serious felony prosecutions occur — is that prosecutors hold enormous power in charging decisions involving defendants with prior felony records: the difference between charging a Class A versus Class B felony, or alleging the HFOA versus proceeding without it, can be the difference between a bounded sentence and a mandatory life term.