Go find a podcast called The Alabama Murders. It’s a seven-episode series by author, Malcolm Gladwell, done under his Revisionist History podcast. I love Revisionist History. It’s been one of my favorite podcasts for a long time but, well, The Alabama Murders is yet another example of someone who is not from here looking at Alabama with shame and disgust. Our state has been the target of this for a long, long time. Gladwell goes out of his way a few times in the podcast to say something along the lines of, “What you think people would do in this case is this. However, this is Alabama.” It’s a clear shot at our state, a slap, degrading and belittling.
However, I want you to find The Alabama Murders podcast because, candidly, we deserve it this time. Two men were executed for killing a woman who they did not kill. The jury of their peers wanted them jailed for the harm they did, but the judge, who also knew they didn’t kill her, changed their sentence to the death penalty in a move called “judicial override.” If Gladwell’s telling of the story is true, after every state in the union had eliminated judicial override, Alabama kept it for a long while. After every state in the union reverted every guilty party’s judgment to what was given to them by the jury of their peers, Alabama refused to change any sentences, grandfathering in the judicial override sentencing, which led to the execution of the two men who did not kill their victim. Her husband did.
Go find The Alabama Murders and hear the story for yourself. The most gruesome part of the story is not the murder of the lady, but our state’s repeated failed attempts to execute the prisoners. It was, unquestionably, cruel and unusual punishment performed by men who then took to the media to boast about creating new precedents that states across the nation should adopt.
Granted, the podcast included some dramatization. Long silences to let words linger, music that drove home the cruelty inflicted in each execution and attempted execution and silences where we can only assume the person being interviewed was quietly crying. But folks, there is no question there should be egg all over our face based on what happened.
I’m as sick as the next person of Alabama being looked down upon, and as much as I admire and like Gladwell - I’ve read all his books - I wish he’d sniff around his own backyard to find stories of justice gone wrong. Leave us alone. There are many good people here.
However, you do need to hear this podcast. You need to hear all that happened and who facilitated it and who knew about the cruelty in the executions and did nothing and who knew about the true murderer and sentenced these men to death instead. Find The Alabama Murders in your podcasts. It’ll make you flinch. It’ll make you want to turn away. Don’t, listen and help me hold our state and our elected officials to a higher standard.
I’m Cam Marston, just trying to Keep it Real.
