Alabama lawmakers plan to prioritize crime and immigration in 2025 legislative session

by Alander Rocha and Anna Barrett, Alabama Reflector
February 4, 2025

Alabama’s legislative leaders said Tuesday they would prioritize crime prevention and immigration bills as the 2025 regular session of the state Legislature began. 

Newly-elected Senate President Pro Tempore Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, said the Senate’s to-do list “is long, and our time to accomplish it is short” in the chamber shortly after being sworn in as the chamber’s leader.

He added after the chamber recessed that “protecting Alabama values and protecting families” and “government efficiency and transparency” are two “overwhelming themes” lawmakers are considering but did not mention specific legislation or policy.

“I think that we need more of that in government, and I believe that everybody right now would like to see that,” Gudger said.

Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said after the House gaveled out Tuesday that the chamber would prioritize a crime bill package early in the session. He said his staff and Gov. Kay Ivey’s staff worked closely to develop the package.

“We’ll probably hear the governor say something about those tonight at the State the State,” Ledbetter said. “So we’re excited to see that, and I think it’s going to make a difference.”

Gudger said that “key bills” will be introduced soon addressing immigration, such as targeting migrants who are felons and those lacking permanent legal status from using fraudulent documents to buy firearms, though it is already illegal for them to own firearms, while Ledbetter said a priority of the Legislature will be a package of about 10 immigration bills. The speaker said he expects the bills to move through quickly.

“I think most of the ones are just to make sure that the people here are legal, and if they’re not, they’re not criminals,” Ledbetter said.

Another priority for the Legislature will be to change the funding model for the Education Trust Fund to be a weighted model. Money is currently delivered to schools under a formula that relies on average daily attendance. Legislators have been speaking for months about changes that would provide extra money for schools with special needs populations, such as students in poverty; English language learners and rural schools.

“I think it’s just the thing about it: You change something that has been changed in 30 years, you need to try to go through the process and make sure we don’t hurt people,” Ledbetter said. Ledbetter said the new model will benefit poverty stricken school systems and be an overall benefit to the state.

“And that’s what they’re doing. They’ve done a great job of being cautious,” he said of House ETF Committee Chair Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, and Senate Finance and Taxation Education Chair Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur. “But I do think once we get it changed, it’d be better for the state, better for the students in the state.”

Gudger said the chamber aimed to provide quality education from K-12 to higher education and retaining graduates in the state, though he did not mention specific legislation.

“We want to be able to retain that knowledge and that sophistication when they get their graduate degrees into Alabama, to stay in Alabama, and we’re able to retain that knowledge here, instead of it going out of state.

He also pointed to potential gambling legislation but said he has not seen any bills and is not part of the discussion.

“Right now, people are talking about it, but I haven’t seen anything,” he said.

House members have been more reluctant to discuss gambling after a bitter fight between the House and Senate over a comprehensive proposal last year. Ledbetter said “we’re not going to do anything on this side” related to gambling. 

“That’s something they’ll have to handle,” he said. “But we won’t see anything from the House.”

Senators also honored former Senate Pro Tempore Greg Reed, R-Jasper, who left the Senate last year after Gov. Kay Ivey to become Senior Advisor to Workforce Transformation as the Department of Labor is rebranded as the Department of Workforce. Reed, speaking to the chamber, thanked Senators for their work while he served as leader of the Senate.

“What a group of enormously capable, wildly intelligent, continuously dedicated men and women that are about the business of doing all the things important to people of the state of Alabama,” he said to the body.

Gudger also said to the Senate body that he’ll focus on teamwork “to ensure that every member feels included, valued, respected, and heard,” a theme he promoted in his bid to become the Senate’s leader.

“Let’s all of us embrace the spirit of Alabama and resolve as one man and woman, Democrat, Republican, black and white, liberal and conservative, to work together for the betterment of the citizens that all of us took an oath to serve,” he said. 

Ivey was scheduled to deliver the State of the State address, outlining her priorities for the session, Tuesday evening.

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.

The post Alabama lawmakers plan to prioritize crime and immigration in 2025 legislative session • Alabama Reflector appeared first on alabamareflector.com

SUMMARY: Good morning and welcome to News 5 Now. We’re streaming live on Facebook and wkrg.com, covering local and global news. Today’s big stories include President Trump’s tariff delay with Canada and Mexico, a Day Without Immigrants protest in Pensacola, and a rare sighting of endangered North Atlantic right whales along the Alabama shoreline. Faith Academy’s head football coach is stepping down, and AARP is hosting free events to highlight African-American history during Black History Month. Our question of the day asks how you’d feel if the Super Bowl was played internationally. Stay tuned for more updates on News 5.

Dozens of people protest Immigration in Pensacola, a Mobile County high school head football coach steps down & whales spotted in the Gulf.

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As Alabama execution looms, supporters of death row inmate turn to Michigan governor

by Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
February 4, 2025

Alabama’s plan to execute Demetrius Frazier on Thursday could be complicated if the governor of Michigan attempts to intervene.

Frazier, convicted of the 1991 rape and murder of Pauline Brown in Birmingham, is scheduled to be put to death by nitrogen gas. Frazier was serving a life sentence in Michigan after being convicted of murdering 14-year-old Crystal Kendrick in 1992. He was convicted of Brown’s murder in 1996 but was incarcerated in Michigan until being transferred to Alabama in 2011.

Frazier’s mother Carol and friends and family of Frazier asked Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to intervene last week.

“I love my son with all my heart,” Carol Frazier stated in her letter. “I know my son has changed. Demetrius has repented. He has asked God for forgiveness. He has also told me he has made a mistake and wish he could take it back.”

Whitmer has not publicly weighed in on the case. A message was sent to the Michigan Governor’s Office on Monday seeking comment. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel wrote in a filing last month that the state “does not seek to return Frazier to a Michigan correctional facility.”

“The question before our office was not whether or not the attorney general should intervene, but whether that transfer was appropriate and legal under Michigan law, which we determined it was,” said Danny Wimmer, press secretary for the Michigan AG’s Office in a statement last Tuesday. “Outside of that, this department does not intervene in other states’ criminal matters.”

Frazier’s legal options have narrowed considerably in the past week after two of his lawsuits have stalled in the courts. A federal district court judge for the Middle District of Alabama denied his request for a preliminary injunction on Friday.

Demetrius also asked a court to dismiss a second federal lawsuit after Nessel said they were not seeking to return Frazier to Michigan. No further appeals had been filed with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals as of early Monday afternoon.

Alabama carried out six executions in 2024, more than any other state. Three involved nitrogen gas. Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1847.

Shortly after the Alabama Supreme Court granted the state’s motion, Frazier, like other inmates subjected to nitrogen gas, argued that Alabama’s current nitrogen protocol violates his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment, citing testimony from experts and witnesses from the previous nitrogen gas executions carried out by the state.

The judge ruled in favor of the state, stating that “Frazier has failed to show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits — ‘the most important preliminary-injunction criterion.’”

U.S. District Judge Emily Marks, relying  on testimony from Joseph Antognini, anesthesiologist and witness from the state, ruled for Alabama, writing that “the oxygen deprivation resulting from inhaling nitrogen materially differs from the oxygen deprivation occasioned by other forms of suffocation, such as smothering with a pillow.”

Marks dismissed witness testimony of inmates struggling under the gas, saying they ‘cannot reliably pinpoint when an inmate loses consciousness.’”

Frazier filed another lawsuit claiming that he is technically in the custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections and was transferred to the custody of the ADOC after an executive agreement was signed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley in 2011, according to Frazier’s defense team.

Supporters have urged Whitmer to intervene.

“Michigan was the first state to legislatively abolish the death penalty, and the state has a constitutional prohibition on executions,” said Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, who helped deliver the signed petition to Whitmer. “Human rights norms usually keep counties and states from sending prisoners to places where they face human rights violations, but in Mr. Frazier’s case they inexplicably decided to ship him off to Alabama to be killed.”

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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