{"id":114061,"date":"2025-02-27T21:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T21:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/speedy-trial-act-passes-house-and-senate-committees\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T21:20:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T21:20:00","slug":"speedy-trial-act-passes-house-and-senate-committees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=114061","title":{"rendered":"Speedy Trial Act passes House and Senate committees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>On Wednesday, HB307, or the Speedy Trial Act, was favorably reported by the House Judiciary Committee with one amendment. Its Senate equivalent, SB178, was also approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n<p>HB307 \u201cgives the chief justice of the Supreme Court in conjunction with the district attorney and attorney general\u2019s office the ability to either shift a sitting judge from another county, or alternatively to take a retired judge and place them there in order to clear some of this backlog,\u201d Rep. Jim Hill, R-Moody, explained to the House committee.<\/p>\n<p>During the committee meeting, Hill also introduced an amendment that would allow presiding circuit judges to reassign cases to \u201cany other circuit or district judge in the circuit without regard to division or specialty.\u201d After this sole proposed amendment was adopted, the committee unanimously voted to favorably recommend the bill to the House.<\/p>\n<p>Hill told APR <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alreporter.com\/2025\/02\/21\/rep-jim-hill-introduces-speedy-trial-act-in-attempt-to-fix-court-backlogs\/\">last week<\/a> that he introduced HB307 to address the \u201cconstitutional issues about not trying criminal cases in a speedy manner.\u201d Under both the U.S. Constitution and section 6 of the Alabama state constitution, anyone charged with a crime has a right to a \u201cspeedy\u201d trial.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation has also been endorsed by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsfa.com\/video\/2025\/02\/25\/alabama-attorney-general-discusses-speedy-trial-act\/\">local news channels<\/a> yesterday that it would mean \u201cgreater flexibility for us, especially when we\u2019re using retired judges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, asked, \u201cIs [SB178] to include funding for additional resources that go along with additional judges?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bill\u2019s sponsor, Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, responded by pointing out that the bill creates a \u201cSpeedy Trial Fund\u201d that the Chief Justice could draw from to pay for visiting judges\u2019 expenses.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\" style=\"margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; display: block; clear: both;\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-wrap\"><span class=\"zox-ad-label\">Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>After Coleman-Madison\u2019s question was addressed, the bill was quickly favorably reported to the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Hill\u2019s split sentencing bill, HB43, was also given a public hearing during the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. HB43 would grant judges more latitude in issuing split sentences, or sentences for Class A or B felonies split between prison time and parole.<\/p>\n<p>One committee member, Sen. Lance Bell, R-Pell City, opined that under Alabama\u2019s current laws, he and his fellow senators on the committee could all receive a 30 year sentence and get out at different times. \u201cThere\u2019s no rhyme or reason why that happens,\u201d he complained.<\/p>\n<p>Beginning with Bell\u2019s comments, most of the committee\u2019s discussion focused on how long people convicted of felonies would be required to serve in jail, and if they could be released early. Under Alabama law, defendants who receive split sentences are not eligible for parole or other deductions from their sentence during the time in prison they are sentenced to serve.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, called HB43 a \u201cgood bill\u201d and said that \u201cat some point in time you just gotta remove people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the public comment period, Wanda Miller, the executive director of Victims of Crime and Leniency, told the committee her \u201cphone has been ringing off the hook\u201d with people complaining about \u201cthe chipping away of punishment.\u201d Other speakers who opposed the bill spoke about their personal experiences and fears of offenders being released early.<\/p>\n<p>Arguing in favor of HB43, circuit judge Jeff Kelley called the bill \u201canother tool, in the right cases, to be able to dispense justice for the victims as well as to the defendants.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\" style=\"margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; display: block; clear: both;\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-wrap\"><span class=\"zox-ad-label\">Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nettie Blume, representing the Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, also spoke in favor of the proposed legislation and suggested it be amended to allow judges to reconsider past sentences. Rep. Hill and some senators on the committee clarified that they would not support making the bill retroactive.<\/p>\n<p>HB43 will be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee next week. HB307 and SB178 now need to be passed by the House and the Senate.<\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, HB307, or the Speedy Trial Act, was favorably reported by the House Judiciary Committee with one amendment. Its Senate equivalent, SB178, was also approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. HB307 \u201cgives the chief justice of the Supreme Court in conjunction with the district attorney and attorney general\u2019s office the ability to either shift [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[33526,7622,26448,50856,594,22185,50857,21482,19551,50858,47602,50859,13623,50860],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-114061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","tag-2025-legislative-session","tag-act","tag-committees","tag-court-backlogs","tag-house","tag-passes","tag-rep-jim-hill","tag-senate","tag-speedy","tag-speedy-trial-act","tag-split-sentences","tag-state-courts","tag-trial","tag-visiting-judge"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Speedy Trial Act passes House and Senate committees - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=114061\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Speedy Trial Act passes House and Senate committees - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Wednesday, HB307, or the Speedy Trial Act, was favorably reported by the House Judiciary Committee with one amendment. Its Senate equivalent, SB178, was also approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. 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