A bill to change the way criminals are sentenced in Alabama is on its way to the governor.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, called the a bill that gives judges voluntary sentencing standards the “lynchpin” of a package that has been backed by the Alabama Sentencing Commission and Gov. Bob Riley.

The sentencing reform bill, sponsored by Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, passed the House this morning, and could go to the governor if the upper chamber agrees to a cosmetic change made in the House.

“In Alabama ... we criminalize a whole lot of offenses that probably ought not to be criminalized,” said Rep. James Buskey, D-Mobile.

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