EX PARTE MOODY
| Decision Date | 26 March 2004 |
| Citation | 888 So.2d 605 |
| Parties | Ex parte Walter Leroy MOODY, Jr. (In re Walter Leroy Moody, Jr. v. State of Alabama). |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Bruce A. Gardner, Huntsville, for petitioner.
William H. Pryor, Jr., atty. gen., and Nathan A. Forrester, deputy atty. gen., and Regina F. Speagle, asst. atty. gen., for respondent.
WRIT DENIED. NO OPINION.
I concur in denying the petition for a writ of certiorari. However, while I do not think the Court of Criminal Appeals erred to reversal in affirming Moody's death sentence, I question several aspects of the analysis by that court of the legality of the sentence. Most prominent among the questionable aspects is the rationale that the 11-1 vote to recommend the death sentence proves that all 12 jurors found the existence of at least one aggravating circumstance. That rationale overindulges a legal fiction, the presumption that jurors follow the jury instructions. The notion that the 11 jurors who voted for the death penalty would have refrained from that vote and would have agreed upon a life-without-parole recommendation because a single juror did not find the existence of at least one aggravating circumstance ignores reality; and our procedures do not provide any way for a juror who does not find at least one aggravating circumstance to register the absence of that finding except to vote for a life-without-parole recommendation when the other jurors proceed to vote for a death recommendation. Thus, I respectfully submit that we should adopt a rule requiring the trial court to poll the jurors on the existence of each proffered aggravating circumstance if the jury returns a less-than-unanimous recommendation for the death penalty.
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...but the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed. See Moody v. State , 888 So.2d 532 (Ala. Crim. App. 2003), writ denied , 888 So.2d 605 (Ala. 2004). After pursuing state post-conviction remedies, Mr. Moody sought federal habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district cou......
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Moody v. State
...32003). The facts of the crime are fully set out in that opinion. The Alabama Supreme Court denied certiorari review, Ex parte Moody, 888 So. 2d 605 (Ala. 2004), and this Court issued a certificate of judgment on March 26, 2004. The United States Supreme Court subsequently denied certiorari......
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...Accord Ex parte Loggins, 771 So.2d 1093, 1104 (Ala.2000); Moody v. State, 888 So.2d 532, 586 (Ala.Crim.App. 2003), cert. denied, 888 So.2d 605 (Ala. 2004). Here, the trial court carefully considered each of the photographs the State offered as evidence. Although a substantial number of the ......