By Ivana Hrynkiw
Alabama Media Group, Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Alabama Supreme Court won’t review the cases of two men currently on Alabama Death Row.
In orders issued Friday, the court denied a writ of certiorari-- or a request to review-- the case of Willie Earl Scott. The court also quashed a writ of certiorari for Alfonzo Morris.
Scott, now 38, was convicted in the Sept. 11, 1999 rape and asphyxiation death of 10-year-old Latonya Sager, who was found dead in her bed at her home in Birmingham’s Norwood neighborhood.
In 2010, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld his conviction and death sentence, but the Alabama Supreme Court said that the opinion of a Jefferson County judge upholding the conviction was almost identical to briefs filed by prosecutors. The court told the county judge to Scott’s case and write a new opinion.
Morris, 57, was twice convicted and sentenced to death in the 1997 beating death of an 85-year-old woman.
Miriam Rochester, who weighed 92 pounds and used a walker, was found in the hall of her Second Avenue South home on Feb. 25, 1997. Evidence showed she had been knocked to the floor with a blunt object in her living room, but had made it to a hallway before receiving the fatal blow. Her house was ransacked, and her killer stayed to eat, drink, and smoke in the home.
Morris was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 for the crime, but the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction and sentence after determining Morris was denied a fair trial because he was not given money to hire an independent mental-health expert.
In April 2008, Morris was again tried for the two counts of capital murder, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict and the trial court declared a mistrial. His third and final trial began the next month, and Morris was again convicted and sentenced to death based on the recommendation of the jury.
In 2016, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed a circuit judge’s dismissal of the inmate’s appeal.
©2018 Alabama Media Group, Birmingham