Capital Factors

Alabama's death penalty can be imposed when a suspect is accused of murder plus one or more of 18 circumstances. They are: Homicide during the commission of kidnapping; robbery; rape/sodomy; burglary; sexual abuse; arson; hijacking; murder of police officer or public official while on duty or when related to or caused by or is related to his official position, act, or capacity; murder for pecuniary or other valuable consideration; two or more persons murdered in same act/course of conduct; victim less than 14 years old; murder under life sentence; murder during arson or by means of explosives; murder by defendant who has previously been convicted of murder within 20 years; murder of witness in civil or criminal trial when murder is caused by or related to the testimony; murder during act of unlawfully assuming control of any aircraft; murder when deadly weapon is fired outside of a dwelling when victim is in dwelling; murder by deadly weapon used from or within a vehicle. [see update below]

I'm sure you would write a good-sized textbook explaining how each of those 18 were chosen. But perhaps one of my Birmingham area readers can explain which one is involved in the murder of a 23 woman in her car, allegedly by a 22 year old second woman outside that car last night. Here's the story in the Birmingham News. [see update below] And one side question...can opponents of hate crimes laws explain to me why all murders are not treated the same? [UPDATE: Carol Robinson, who wrote The Birmingham News story was kind enough to tell me the aggravating circumstance would be firing into a car...which isn't listed among the 18 above circumstances, but which I was able to find elsewhere: "Murder committed by or through the use of a deadly weapon while the victim is in a vehicle" Thanks Carol!]