Alabama House passes bill expanding death penalty to child sexual assault

by Anna Barrett, Alabama Reflector
February 11, 2025

The Alabama House of Representatives Tuesday passed a bill expanding offenses punishable by the death penalty to sexual assault of minors. 

HB 49, sponsored by Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, passed the House on an 86-5 vote, with nine abstentions. The legislation would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for  those convicted of rape and sodomy in the first degree when the victim is younger than 12 years old. 

Simpson said in a committee hearing last week that the bill is intended to challenge existing U.S. Supreme Court precedent limiting capital punishment to crimes in which a person was killed. 

The original version of the bill extended it to when the victim is younger than six years old, but the House Judiciary Committee proposed the substitution on Feb. 5.

Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, claimed that Alabama cannot be a pro-life state with legislation like this. 

“Aren’t we a pro-life state?” Jackson asked. “You can’t be pro-life and killing people.”

Simpson said he believed making the crime subject to the death penalty would act as a deterrent. 

“I believe you have a right to life, but your actions can cause you to lose that right,” he said. 

Under existing law, rape and sodomy in the first degree are both Class A felonies with punishment up to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

Rep. Kenyatté Hassell, D-Montgomery, disagreed and pointed to the cases in which the crime is committed under the influence of drugs or a mental illness, and that the death penalty is extreme. Simpson said the legislation is modeled after that of capital murder, where not every crime is punished by the death penalty. 

“Don’t get me wrong, I have three daughters. If this were to happen to my daughters I would be very upset,” Hassell said. “But I think it’s extreme … We didn’t even talk about castration. We immediately went to the death penalty on this.”

Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, cited the United States Supreme Court ruling on Kennedy v. Louisiana, where the court ruled  “unusual” punishments, like the death penalty could not be enforced if nobody died. 

“Chances are, the State of Alabama will get sued for passing a bill that’s unconstitutional, we’ll spend tons of taxpayer dollars defending it in court,” Ensler said. 

Simpson said that since Florida and Tennessee have passed similar bills, like Simpson’s both aimed at challenging that precedent.  

“It just seems fiscally irresponsible to pass something that we’re going to ask taxpayers to defend when, yet again, people are having a hard time paying for eggs, paying gas, paying for milk,” Ensler said.

Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, said he would vote against the bill simply for his moral alignment that the death penalty is wrong. Rep. Patrick Sellers, D-Pleasant Grove, said he felt tension from a parent’s perspective on the bill. He voted yes on the bill. 

“While there are those that argue against the death penalty and argue against life without parole, until you stand in the place of a father, or a mother, and your child has been violated and you can’t do anything … I think that will say a lot,” he said. 

The bill moves to the Alabama Senate.

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

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