Birmingham Blues

Looks like Alabama AG Troy King is looking for some favorable publicity to balance out the black eye of the Dan King/Anthony Castaldo mess. He’s removed Shelby County DA Robby Owens from a death row case, saying the DA “acted on the side of the criminal”. And how did the DA do that? He spoke in favor of commuting the death sentence of LaSamuel Gamble, who was convicted of capital murder when he was 18. Store security tape showed his then 16-year-old partner in crime, was the shooter.

Gamble was one of two people charged with capital murder in the execution-style shooting deaths of John Burleson and Janice Littleton during the July 1996 robbery of John’s 280 Pawn. The other person, Marcus Presley, then 16, was the shooter, as recorded on a store security tape.

Owens prosecuted both cases.

Presley was moved off Death Row after the U.S. Supreme Court, in Roper v. Simmons, ruled that killers could not be put to death for slayings they committed while juveniles. Gamble, who was 18 when the slayings occurred, remained under a death sentence.

Joiner ruled that such a circumstance was “constitutionally unfair.” His ruling quoted King’s friend-of-the-court brief in the Roper case, where he used the pawn shop killings to argue that letting a more culpable juvenile off Death Row “would defy common sense.”

“Under that line, Gamble – who was 18 at the time but did not actually kill anyone – would face the death penalty, but Presley – who at 16 executed two people with startling coolness – would get a free pass. Surely the Eighth Amendment does not, as a matter of constitutional principle, mandate such a bizarre result,” King argued in his brief.

Owens’ testimony that so riled King came after Owens first said he had agreed with the attorney general in his Roper brief arguing that juveniles ought to be subjected to the death penalty in certain circumstances.

“Both of those defendants deserve to be on Death Row,” Owens testified. “But out of plain fairness and simple equity in life, it’s not fair to leave the person on Death Row who didn’t kill anyone and take the person off Death Row who did.”

But fairness, simple equity, and common sense go out the window when Boy Troy senses a headline in the air.

In a press release, King said: “We will perform that duty which the district attorney has shirked, and will appeal to keep this man (Gamble), whose hands are stained with the blood of innocents, on Death Row.”

Of course, politics had absolutely nothing to do with Troy’s decision to go after someone who backed his opponent in the last election.

Owens, according to his administrative assistant, Debbie Street, was at the hospital with his wife, who is being treated for cancer. Owens, a Republican, backed King’s opponent, Democrat John Tyson, in the 2006 election.

King spokesman Chris Bence said politics was not a factor. King met a member of the Burleson family at a victims vigil before the election and after the Roper decision, Bence said.

“She told the attorney general that she was scared to death both of these killers would get off,” Bence said.

See, in Troy King’s world, spending the rest of your life in an Alabama prison equals “getting off”, and he can’t have that. In Troy’s world, a day without an execution just doesn’t feel quite right. So he’s donning his cape and tights and riding to the rescue once again. If he takes down someone else on his political “enemies list” along the way — well, that’s just lagniappe.

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For more background, check out Dan’s list of Troy’s Greatest Hits at Daily Dixie.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 7:43 am and is filed under Alabama Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.