BOB JOHNSON
The Associated Press
April 5, 2005
 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama House passed nine bills Tuesday recommended by a commission that has been studying the way Alabama courts sentence offenders.
 
The bills include a measure to extend the work of the Alabama Sentencing Commission for two additional years. The commission was created by the Legislature in 2000 at the urging of then Attorney General Bill Pryor because of concerns that sentences for the same crime often varied from court to court and from one part of the state to another.

The commission is supposed to give its final report to the Legislature in 2006, but one of the bills approved by the House extends the panel's deadline until 2008.

The House votes on the sentencing bills came after House Republicans ended a protest over the General Fund budget approved three weeks ago. House Republicans favor a version of the budget proposed by Gov. Bob Riley and were protesting the way the spending plan passed the House.

House Republican Caucus leader Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said the GOP members agreed to stop delaying action in the House after Republican leaders met with House Speaker Seth Hammett. Hubbard said Hammett agreed to make several changes in the way the House does business, including giving greater priority to GOP bills.

But House Majority Leader Rep. Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, said Democratic leaders in the House already work to include Republican-sponsored bills on the House work agenda and would not be doing anything differently.

In addition to the Sentencing Commission bills, the House also passed a bill Tuesday to give more authority to the Legislature's Contract Review Committee. The committee reviews contracts from state agencies and can hold up a contract for 45 days before it goes to the governor for his signature. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Neal Morrison, D-Cullman, would allow the committee to hold a contract for 60 days. It now goes to the Senate.

The sentencing bills, which also go to the Senate, include a measure to allow courts to consider convictions in other states when sentencing those convicted of driving under the influence. The sponsor, Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, said courts currently consider people as first offenders if they have no previous DUI cases in Alabama, even if they have been convicted of drunken driving in other states.

Another bill would require courts to fine offenders convicted of drug trafficking when they have been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The sponsor, Rep. John Robinson, D-Scottsboro, said often drug traffickers have large amounts of cash and property that could be seized to pay the fines.

Rep. Joseph Mitchell, D-Mobile, said he hoped the measure would further penalize crack dealers in his mostly black Mobile County district.

"I wish you could see the devastation crack cocaine is having on my district. It's killing people," Mitchell said.

"We want every dime they've gotten if they've stooped so low as to traffic in illicit drugs," Robinson replied.

The House delayed action on one Sentencing Commission bill that would allow the release of some prisoners who are permanently incapacitated or terminally ill.

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