William Bowen Jr

William Bowen Jr., the former presiding judge of the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, spoke out against the state's jury override provision which allows a judge to impose a death sentence even after the jury has recommended life in prison. Bowen said most judges would prefer not to have this power because it increases political pressure on judges to impose the death penalty. In Alabama, nearly a quarter of the death row inmates were sentenced to death by an elected judge exercising the jury override power."Judicial politics has gotten so dirty in this state that your opponent in an election simply has to say that you're soft on crime because you haven't imposed the death penalty enough," said Bowen."People run for re-election on that basis, because the popular opinion in the state is, Let's hang 'em."