Regarding the scheduled August 21 execution of 59-year-old David Roberts, Amnesty International USA’s Deputy Director for Research, Justin Mazzola, said:
“The State of Alabama must not execute David Roberts. Roberts has serious mental disabilities, including paranoid schizophrenia, and his lawyers are challenging his competency for execution. The US Supreme Court has ruled that people who cannot understand their sentence or the reasons for it cannot be executed.
“While it is positive that Marion County Circuit Judge Talmage Lee Carter issued a temporary stay of execution on July 10 for a mental health evaluation, Roberts’ mental condition is far from the only alarming aspect in his case. He had ineffective legal representation at trial, and the judge imposed the death penalty against the jury decision, a practice now outlawed. We urge Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to commute David Roberts’ death sentence.
“Governor Ivey already commuted Rocky Myers’ death sentence earlier this year, showing clemency can be a fail-safe way to stop executions. Now, she must stop Roberts’ execution and establish an immediate moratorium on all executions as critical next steps.
“The death penalty is wrong in all cases because it violates the right to life and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”
Background
David Roberts was convicted of shooting and killing a woman in 1992. A jury voted for life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, but the judge overrode them and imposed the death penalty.
In 2017, Alabama became the last state to end judicial overrides but did not apply the law retroactively.
In 2024, Alabama executed more people than any other US state, carrying out six of 25 nationwide. The state’s criminal justice system is riddled with systemic flaws, racial bias and human rights violations.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and under any circumstances, regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender or the method used by the state to carry out the execution.
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