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Motion: Alabama prisons not safe for convicted ex-officer

A state appeals court is refusing to overturn the convictions of eight inmates on Alabama's death row.
A state appeals court is refusing to overturn the convictions of eight inmates on Alabama's death row.

An attorney for a white former officer convicted of killing an unarmed black man has filed a motion to keep the ex-officer out of Alabama prisons.

News outlets report the motion asked that former Montgomery officer Aaron Cody Smith serve his 14-year sentence as a split sentence. That would put him behind bars for three years with the rest of the sentence on probation.

His attorney said unconstitutional conditions in Alabama prisons would not be safe for the former officer. The attorney also filed an appeal bond, which prosecutors opposed at sentencing and in a written objection.

Smith was convicted of manslaughter in the 2016 shooting death of Gregory Gunn.

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