Judicial reform too often means putting more people in prison longer - a mind-set that has Alabama's prisons overcrowded and needing an extra $1 billion for capital improvements, which the state doesn't have.

Occasionally, though, legislators find ways to support reforms that make sense. Several are circulating through the Legislature this session.

Last week, the Alabama House passed a bill that would let some inmates - those who are terminally ill or permanently disabled - go home.

This wouldn't include those convicted of capital or sex crimes. And it probably didn't gain support for its abundance of Christian charity. Rather, these are people who the state won't have to support by getting them out of cells. And they will be people incapable of harming others because of their physical conditions.

Another bill - expanding the death penalty to those who kill with illegal assault weapons (as defined by the federal government) is more problematic.

The idea, basically, is that anyone who uses a banned weapon to kill someone inadvertently could be found guilty of a capital crime, not manslaughter.

One problem is that the bill has already been amended so it doesn't include all assault weapons. That's thanks to the lobbying of your friendly neighborhood National Rifle Association. Whether they've been killed with an illegal or legal assault weapon won't matter much to a victim, of course.

Another problem is the assault weapon list has been drastically reduced because Congress let a federal ban on 19 such weapons expire last September.

A really good bill is one offered by Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, that would put Alabama's death-penalty law in compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court decisions that says states can't execute the mentally retarded or those under 18 years old.

State Attorney General Troy King opposes the law. He hopes a more conservative court eventually will overturn those decisions.

It's the same old story: part of Alabama's constitution has been ruled illegal, but nobody wants to change it. It's just like the illegal racist language that remains in that document.

Alabama should follow the federal law. Pass Sanders' bill. If the Supreme Court decides later to revisit and rescind its rulings on the mentally retarded and those under 18, politicians can make political hay by reinstituting those laws, unless the people's better angels convince the legislators not to.

Sanders' proposal to put a moratorium on executions won't get anywhere. Other states have done so because DNA testing has revealed innocent people on Death Row. This Legislature can't accept that yet.

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