On May 2nd, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the death sentence of the person responsible for the murder of Officer Philip Davis and remanded the case back to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals for review. The Philip Mahan Davis Foundation is not shocked by the review of this sentence. With such a sentence, the appeals process becomes very thorough and at many times complicated. We trust that the Alabama Criminal Court of Appeals will weigh the comparison between the Alabama Death Penalty Sentencing scheme and Hurst V Florida carefully.
For those of you who didn’t know Philip M. Davis, he was a professional police officer and a scholar. Philip spent his entire adult life defending both the Alabama and US Constitutions and to ensure, to the best of his ability, the criminal justice system worked in a manner that provided justice and protected the rights of those involved. Our thoughts and prayers are with other victim families who may be affected by this review of Alabama’s death penalty and procedures.
