USA - Alabama. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 6 to 1 today in favor of a 3-year moratorium on executions.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 6 to 1 today in favor of a 3-year moratorium on executions. The bill has been proposed by Senator Hank Sanders, D-Selma. The proposed hiatus in executions has come as a response to statistics regarding the state’s possibly racist sentencing. According to Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, more blacks have been executed than whites since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and the black population on Alabama's death row is approximately 49 % compared to a total black population of about 26 %. "Historically, capital punishment in the U.S. has been disproportionately applied to economically and socially disadvantaged persons, which is why it tends to politicize as a racial issue" said Kalynne Pudner, a professor of ethics. During the proposed three-year hiatus, the state would make sure the death penalty is being administered impartially and fairly across the state. Sanders' bill now heads to the Senate, where comparable legislation failed in 2005 and 2006. Sanders also sponsored moratorium legislation in 2007 and 2008, but those bills died in the Judiciary Committee. In addition to approving Sanders' moratorium bill, the committee voted 5-3 for his companion bill that would bring Alabama's death penalty law in line with the march 1, 2205 (see) U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibits the death penalty for people who were under 18 when they committed their crimes. That bill now goes to the Senate.