{"id":219984,"date":"2025-05-03T01:50:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T01:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/bill-limiting-youthful-offender-status-for-murder-heads-to-senate-floor\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T01:50:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T01:50:29","slug":"bill-limiting-youthful-offender-status-for-murder-heads-to-senate-floor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=219984","title":{"rendered":"Bill limiting youthful offender status for murder heads to Senate floor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Earlier this week the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee passed <a href=\"https:\/\/legiscan.com\/AL\/text\/HB146\/2025\">HB146<\/a>. The bill, introduced by Rep. Phillip Pettus, R-Killen, would prohibit judges in the state from granting youthful offender status to anyone 16 years of age or older who is charged with intentional or capital murder.<\/p>\n<p>Before the bill\u2019s passage, the committee adopted an <a href=\"https:\/\/alison.legislature.state.al.us\/files\/pdf\/SearchableInstruments\/2025RS\/SLM1K88-1.pdf\">amendment<\/a> proposed by Chairman Will Barfoot, R-District 25. Barfoot\u2019s amendment clarified that if an individual of 16 years of age or older were originally charged with intentional or capital murder but that charge were later reduced to a lesser charge, then that individual would still be eligible for youthful offender status.<\/p>\n<p>Under Alabama\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/brackinlawfirm.com\/the-alabama-youthful-offender-act-eligibility-and-process\/\">Youthful Offender Act<\/a>, individuals granted youthful offender status have their proceedings and records kept confidential, are not formally convicted of a misdemeanor or felony and thereby avoid many long-term consequences of a criminal record, and receive less severe sentencing. Currently, youthful offenders found guilty of committing a felony face a maximum of three years in prison in Alabama.<\/p>\n<p>Pettus\u2019 bill previously <a href=\"https:\/\/alabamareflector.com\/2025\/03\/05\/alabama-house-passes-bill-eliminating-youthful-offender-status-for-intentional-murder\/#:~:text=The%20Alabama%20House%20of%20Representatives%20Tuesday%20approved,the%20chamber's%20Democrats%20in%20opposing%20the%20measure.\">faced criticism in the Alabama House of Representatives<\/a> for taking away judicial discretion. Judges may already deny youthful offender status for heinous crimes, including murder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just opposed to removing judicial discretion,\u201d Rep. Jim Hill, R-Odenville, a former judge, said of the bill on the House floor. \u201cWe don\u2019t want judges making the law from the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo strip, cold turkey, discretion away from judges, I just think we\u2019re going down a very, very dangerous road by doing this,\u201d Rep. Prince Chestnut, D-Selma, said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to get cookie cutter justice across this state, and it\u2019s not going to be good for the defendants or the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was also in the House where HB146 was unanimously amended to specify its application to instances of intentional murder, not just general murder charges. That amendment was introduced by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa.<\/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>\u201cThis would limit the number of folks that were involved in the initial confrontation or incident to the person that was actually killing the other person,\u201d England said of the clarifying amendment.<\/p>\n<p>During Wednesday\u2019s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-District 24, also questioned whether the bill would take away judicial discretion, but was assured by Chairman Barfoot that it would not.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The committee went on to pass HB146, sending it to the Senate floor for consideration by the whole body.<\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this week the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee passed HB146. The bill, introduced by Rep. Phillip Pettus, R-Killen, would prohibit judges in the state from granting youthful offender status to anyone 16 years of age or older who is charged with intentional or capital murder. Before the bill\u2019s passage, the committee adopted an amendment proposed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[33526,42440,6795,47599,1271,2559,37916,3711,9825,82735,21482,15924,32275,82736],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-219984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","tag-2025-legislative-session","tag-alabama-senate-judiciary-committee","tag-bill","tag-criminal-justice","tag-floor","tag-heads","tag-limiting","tag-murder","tag-offender","tag-rep-phillip-pettus","tag-senate","tag-status","tag-youthful","tag-youthful-offender-status"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bill limiting youthful offender status for murder heads to Senate floor - 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=219984\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bill limiting youthful offender status for murder heads to Senate floor - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Earlier this week the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee passed HB146. The bill, introduced by Rep. Phillip Pettus, R-Killen, would prohibit judges in the state from granting youthful offender status to anyone 16 years of age or older who is charged with intentional or capital murder. 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