USA - David Roberts (AL)

USA - Alabama. URGENT ACTION for David Roberts

July 27, 2025:

July 27, 2025 - Alabama. URGENT ACTION for David Roberts

Jury voted for life, execution scheduled for August 21

The State of Alabama is planning to execute 59-year-old David Roberts by nitrogen gas on August 21, 2025. He has been diagnosed with serious mental disabilities, including paranoid schizophrenia. His lawyers are challenging his competency for execution. The jury voted 7-5 that he be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, but the judge overrode this and imposed the death penalty. In 2017, Alabama became the last state to end judicial override but did not apply the law retroactively. His case was also marked by ineffective legal assistance at his 1992 murder trial. We call the on the Governor to commute this death sentence.

TAKE ACTION:

Write a letter to the government official(s) listed. Use the sample letter below as a guide or use your own words.

Governor of Alabama Kay Ivey
Office of the Governor of Alabama
600 Dexter Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36130
USA

Email: info@governor.alabama.gov

Dear Governor,

I urge you to commute the death sentence of David Roberts who has been on death row for three decades. He has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and symptoms of psychosis, delusions, and hallucinations, which may have undermined his ability to assist in his defense. It also raises questions about whether he has a rational understanding of the reality of and reason for his punishment. The use of the death penalty on those with severe mental disabilities is prohibited under international law and standards.

At his trial, the jury decided against the death penalty, with seven of the 12 jurors voting for a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. Eighteen months after the trial, the judge overrode the jury and sentenced David Roberts to death. In 2017, you signed the repeal of the jury override law. However, the law is not retroactive, denying David Roberts and others the benefit of the reform, thereby contravening a key principle in criminal and international human rights law. I would urge you to apply the spirit of this principle to your clemency consideration.

Not only did seven of the jurors vote for life without parole, but the Marion County District Attorney apparently considered this a sufficient sentence when he offered a plea deal to that effect. This deal was thwarted when David Roberts’ lawyer – who was subsequently suspended for his conduct in other cases – did not even tell his client of it until the first day of the trial when he asked him to plead guilty, which David Roberts refused to do. The lawyer was ill-prepared to defend David Roberts and within two days he had been convicted of capital murder.

The power of executive clemency can address injustices the judiciary has been unable or unwilling to remedy. I appeal to you to halt David Roberts’ execution and to commute his death sentence.

Yours sincerely,

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

David Roberts was charged with the capital murder of “AJ”, the girlfriend of the man (“WS”) in whose house Roberts was staying. On April 22, 1992, AJ was shot and killed in the house, which was then set on fire. David Roberts, then 26, became a prime suspect and was subjected to 25 hours of questioning without a lawyer present. He made a series of inconsistent statements including two implicating himself in murder and arson.

In November 1992, the prosecutor offered a deal whereby David Roberts would plead guilty in return for a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. However, this was not relayed to David Roberts by his lawyer until the first day of trial, December 14, 1992, when the lawyer asked his client to enter a guilty plea. David Roberts refused to, and the trial began. The defense lawyer was ill-prepared, having hired no experts, including assessing his client’s psychological health and history. The same lawyer was later suspended by the Alabama Bar Association for misconduct in other cases, eventually losing his license to practice law. International law requires that anyone facing the death penalty be provided “adequate legal assistance at all stages of proceedings”.

A day before the murder, WS had been on trial on charges of burning down his own furniture store for insurance. David Roberts’ father was to be a witness against him, and AJ was too. At David Roberts’ trial, the prosecutor acknowledged that WS may have been involved in the crime of April 22, 1992, but told the jury that this was not an issue for them. The jury convicted David Roberts on December 16, 1992, after a two-day trial. At a sentencing hearing on the same day, by seven votes to five, the jury voted for a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. On May 4, 1994, the judge overrode the jury and imposed the death penalty. In 1997, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that the judge had improperly excluded mitigating evidence at the original sentencing hearing. On remand, with no further jury input, the judge again sentenced David Roberts to death, thereby again overriding the jury’s 1992 vote for life imprisonment without parole. Alabama got rid of its override system in 2017, the last state in the USA to end the practice, but the legislation only applies to new cases, and therefore excludes David Roberts’ case.

On death row, David Roberts has been diagnosed by prison doctors as having paranoid schizophrenia, with symptoms including psychosis, delusions, and hallucinations. According to a psychologist who has reviewed the prison medical record, the severity of David Roberts’ disorder and “how all-encompassing from the record it appears to be” called into serious question his competency for execution under US law. A state court judge has ordered a temporary stay of execution pending a psychiatric evaluation after David Roberts’ current lawyers filed a motion that he is not competent. The state has asked for an “expedited” assessment. It is not yet clear how quickly this evaluation will be conducted and how long the stay will remain in place. The use of the death penalty on those with severe mental disabilities is prohibited under international law and standards.

There have been 26 executions in the USA in 2025, 3 of them in Alabama. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases unconditionally.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL August 21, 2025

https://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent-actions/urgent-action-jury-voted-for-life-execution-scheduled/