After years of trying, state Sen

After years of trying, state Sen. Hank Sanders got a legislative committee to vote for major changes in Alabama's death penalty law, including placing a a three-year moratorium on executions. The Senate Judiciary Committee also approved bills by Sanders to prohibit the death penalty for anyone under 18, to ban execution of the mentally retarded, and to prohibit a judge from imposing the death sentence if a jury recommended a sentence of life in prison without parole. The 4 bills now go to the Senate, where Sanders predicted they will have "an uphill battle." He said it will take several years to change minds in the Senate, much as it took several years to get majority support in the Judiciary Committee. Since 2000, Sanders, a Selma attorney, has been introducing legislation calling for a moratorium. Each year his bill either died in the Senate Judiciary Committee or got approved by the committee so late in a legislative session that everyone knew it would never be considered by the Senate. This year, Sanders came with a package of bills to rewrite Alabama's death penalty law, and he got 4 of his 5 bills approved on a series of 7-1 and 8-0 votes Wednesday.