Subverting the will of the voters: Broadcast News Ignores NC GOP's “Unprecedented Power Grab”

Media Matters

Broadcast news completely ignored an unprecedented move by North Carolina Republicans to limit the power of the state’s incoming Democratic governor. A series of measures put forth by the Republican-controlled legislature have been criticized as a way to “subvert the will of the voters,” and an elections law expert noted that they could spur legal challenges.

Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly held a special session on December 14 in which they proposed a series of laws to strip away power from the state’s incoming Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, including a bill that “removes partisan control of the state and county election boards from the governor,” according to The New York Times. Instead, the Times noted, “a Republican will lead the state board during election years and a Democrat in nonelection years.” A CNN.com report outlined other proposed legislation from the “unprecedented power grab,” including bills to slow the judicial process for the governor to bring legal battles to the state Supreme Court, to block Cooper from appointing members to the state Board of Education and the board of trustees for the University of North Carolina, and to reduce the number of appointments in the Cooper administration from 1,200 to 300.

The special session was a surprise, called suddenly and immediately after the conclusion of another special session to address disaster relief. As The Atlantic noted, “legislators used the same obscure maneuver they did when they passed HB2,” an anti-LGBTQ law that governs access to public bathrooms, “calling themselves back into session with the support of three-fifths of legislators.” Several media figures have pointed out that the backlash against HB 2 -- which invalidated local governments' ability to provide legal protections for LGBTQ people -- was likely a deciding factor in Gov. Pat McCrory’s recent re-election loss. The Atlantic article also explained that Republican House Speaker Tim Moore claimed “the decision to open the second special session had been made only Wednesday,” December 14, which was “a lie that was quickly revealed by the list of signatures from legislators needed to call the session, dated December 12.”

None of these details, however, have been reported on any national broadcast news programs since Wednesday. A review of the December 14 and 15 editions of ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS’ Evening News, NBC’s Nightly News, and of the December 15 and 16 editions of ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’ CBS This Morning, and NBC’s Today found no mentions of the attempted power grab. Local affiliates of all three networks did cover the story.

Other national and internet media outlets also covered the unprecedented moves. As Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern wrote, “This last-minute power grab marks an alarming departure from basic democratic norms” and is “a blatant attempt to overturn the results of an election by curtailing judicial independence and restructuring the government to seize authority lawfully delegated to the incoming Democratic governor.” The New York Times and Washington Post editorial boards criticized the North Carolina Republicans for “resorting to a novel strategy to subvert the will of the voters” and attempting a “graceless power grab.” CNN and MSNBC have also covered what MSNBC’s Chris Hayes described as a “legislative coup.” New York magazine reported that the bills will get a vote on December 20, but that the new measures may spur a larger battle. As elections law expert Rick Hasen explained, some of the measures would spur “potential Voting Rights Act and federal constitutional challenges.”

Supreme Court declines to review NFL concussion settlement

[JURIST]

The US Supreme Court [official website] denied [order list, PDF] review of two class action lawsuit settlements Monday related to concussion injuries suffered by players in the National Football League [website]. The $1 billion settlement between the NFL and more than 20,000 retired players has been challenged by some of those players in two different suits, Armstrong vs. National Football League and Gilchrist vs. National Football League [dockets]. In their decision [opinion] to let the settlement between the NFL and the retired players stand, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] wrote, "It is the nature of a settlement that some will be dissatisfied with the result."

[W]e do not doubt that objectors are well-intentioned in making thoughtful arguments against certification of the class and approval of this settlement. They aim to ensure that the claims of retired players are not given up in exchange for anything less than a generous settlement agreement negotiated by very able representatives. But they risk making the perfect the enemy of the good. This settlement will provide nearly $1 billion in value to the class of retired players. It is a testament to the players, researchers, and advocates who have worked to expose the true human costs of a sport so many love. Though not perfect, it is fair. [MORE]

Dr. Frances Cress Welsing: The Isis Papers [video]

Video - The 'Bigotry of Trump's Cabinet'

FL death row population in limbo after Supreme Court ruled that death penalty requires unanimous jury verdict

NPR

The number of men and women currently waiting on Florida's death row is 384. Nearly all of them live just outside a town called Raiford, Fla.

But those men and women — the second largest death row population in the country — remain in limbo nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that death penalties require a unanimous jury verdict. What's in question is how that ruling will apply to existing convictions.

Two sets of tall chain link fences with coils of razor wire on the top surround Florida State Prison's whitewashed buildings. Ronald Clark is one of the inmates behind those fences.

"That's me at 21 years old," Clark says, looking at a picture of his younger self.

"Long hair, baby face. Looked about 15," he says with a laugh.

Clark is 48 now — serving a life sentence for one murder and facing the death penalty for another. But the Supreme Court's Hurst v. Florida decision has given him a glimmer of hope.

"Because the jury was not the sentencer — the judge was, which Hurst was found to be unconstitutional, because they say that the jury needs to be the sentencer, not the judge," Clark says. [MORE]

Blacks are three times more likely to die of AIDS-related deaths than whites in prisons

The Marshall Project

New data released Thursday from the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows a stark difference in how white and black inmates are dying in the nation’s prisons and jails.

Deaths of all prisoners rose slightly from 2013 to 2014, the latest year for which the bureau has compiled data. Of the 4,980 people who died in custody of federal and state prison systems and about 2,900 local jails nationwide, most were non-Hispanic whites.

Illness accounted for a vast majority of the deaths — heart disease and cancer were among the most common causes — but a closer examination shows significant racial differences in two causes of death.

Between 2001 and 2014, the percentage of state and federal prisoners who died from AIDS-related illnesses decreased dramatically, from a high of 9.6 percent down to 1.8 percent. Local jails saw a similar drop. At the same time, the number of prisoners living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, also decreased.

Despite the decrease, the rate of AIDS-related deaths differed significantly between white and black people in prisons. White inmates died of AIDS-related illnesses at an average rate of 6 per 100,000 prisoners each year. The rate for black inmates was 17 per 100,000, nearly three times that of whites. In jails, a similar pattern emerged. Hispanic and Latino prisoners had roughly the same mortality rate as whites in prisons and jails.

There are similar disparities for suicide, which overall has increased slightly in prisons since 2001. It is the cause of death for 7 percent of white prison inmates, compared with only 3.5 percent of their black peers.

In 2014 alone, suicides represented 7 percent of all deaths in state and federal prisons — the highest percentage since 2001.

This mirrors the overall increase of suicide among white men between the ages of 45 and 64 in the general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it is also reflective of the problem with mental health treatment in jails and prisons. Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer at the School of Law at the University of Texas at Austin, says there are ways to prevent suicide among the incarcerated.

“Look at facilities that have been sued,” Deitch said. Afterward, “they tend to implement good prevention strategies,” she said.

For people who are already living with mental health challenges, the loss of a family member, a stint in solitary, being the victim of violence or being denied parole can lead to a state of depression, said Deitch, who urged better staff training in all areas of corrections. [MORE]

White Orange County Deputies Coerced Confessions & then lied about their activities while under oath

MORE THAN A year after the initial request for intervention was made, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division on December 15 announced that it would initiate an investigation of the still unfolding jailhouse snitch scandal that has embroiled Orange County, California.

“A systemic failure to protect the right to counsel and to a fair trial makes criminal proceedings fundamentally unfair and diminishes the public’s faith in the integrity of the justice system,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division, said in a press release.

As The Intercept has reported, the Orange County district attorney’s office along with the Orange County sheriff have been at the center of a nearly four-year-old scandal involving the illegal use of jailhouse informants — violating their targets’ Sixth Amendment rights — and allegations that prosecutors withheld evidence about their shenanigans from defense attorneys, violating their clients’ due process rights.

Both District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens have been insistent over the years that there is nothing wrong with the county’s criminal justice system — despite still mounting evidence that deputies crafted illegal schemes to coerce confessions out of high-profile inmates and lied about their activities while under oath, and that prosecutors were complicit in and covered up some of the wrongdoing.

Nonetheless, in a statement posted to Facebook, Hutchens welcomed the review: “It is, and has been, our ultimate goal to have a jail system that is exemplary and that upholds its duty to the inmates, our staff and the people of Orange County.”

Although the DOJ credited Rackauckas for requesting the inquiry, he was clearly reluctant and did so only after the handpicked group of lawyers he asked to review the situation issued a scathing report recommending an outside investigation, and several months after a group of 30 distinguished lawyers and interested parties signed on to a letter urging DOJ intervention.

Rackauckas’ statement regarding the review was perfunctory, though he made sure to remind readers that it was he who asked the feds to make their inquiry. The office is “grateful” for the response, reads the press release. And he reiterated the belief that no one in his office did anything wrong — at least not on purpose: “The OCDA believes at the conclusion of USDOJ Civil Rights Division review, they will conclude that the OCDA did not engage in systematic or intentional violation of civil rights of any inmate and no innocent person was wrongfully convicted.”

The Intercept

The DOJ’s planned practice-or-pattern review of the Orange County criminal justice system will seek to ferret out persistent patterns of misconduct and to determine whether systemic deficiencies “contribute to the conduct or enable it to persist.” If misconduct is found, the agency will determine specific remedies needed to fix the issues — usually as part of a negotiated agreement that becomes a federal court order. If the local law enforcement agencies decline to work with the feds to enact the remedies, the DOJ can initiate a civil lawsuit to secure the reforms.

Orange County’s snitch scandal was uncovered by public defender Scott Sanders while working on two high-profile death penalty cases, including one involving Scott Dekraai, responsible for the county’s worst-ever mass shooting. The evidence of misconduct uncovered by Sanders led a local judge, after months of hearings, to conclude that the district attorney’s office should be recused from handling the Dekraai case. The state attorney general sought to overturn that decision, but was shot down in a blistering appellate court opinion delivered in late November.

“The Court of Appeal stated that the ‘magnitude of the systemic problems [in OCDA and OCSD] cannot be overlooked,’” Sanders wrote in an email to The Intercept. “It is hoped that the Justice Department’s probe will help reform the system so that all Orange County residents will receive the constitutional protections to which they are entitled.”

Bankers Who Created Puerto Rico's Debt Crisis Now In Charge of Fixing It

New Toms to Add to the List: Professor Griff speaks on Kanye West, Ray Lewis, and Jim Brown Cooning for Donald Trump

Trump Homeland Security Adviser Helped Contractors Profit Off Harsh Deportation Policies

The Intercept

BEHIND THE CORINTHIAN COLUMNS of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s premiere corporate advocacy association, talk of a crackdown on immigrants takes a clinical tone, far different from the bombastic rhetoric found on talk radio or at a Donald Trump campaign rally.

Lora Ries, speaking at a Chamber conference in 2011 on national security and immigration, spoke calmly about the need for a vast expansion of immigration enforcement. And rather than simply securing the borders, the government should “focus on interior enforcement so that there are those routine consequences,” she said. The government should integrate databases and step up the criminal penalties for those in the country without documentation. After all, she noted, we must “remove the hay to expose the needles.”

Ries, a longtime lobbyist for a variety of homeland security contractors, is one of the latest hires by the Trump transition to remake the Department of Homeland Security.

Her selection is the latest evidence that Trump is preparing to fulfill his pledge to step up deportations.

Ries began her career in government, serving as an official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and as a Republican counsel to the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. But for much of the last decade, Ries has moved through the revolving door as a lobbyist for the contractors profiting from harsh immigration policies.

Her current employer is CSRA International, a massive federal information technology contractor that, among other things, sells the GangNet software that underpins gang databases maintained by 13 states, ICE, the FBI and ATF. 

Disclosure documents show that in 2008, Ries lobbied on behalf of USIS, a company that provided background checks for the federal government, on its work for the controversial Secure Communities program. Secure Communities, developed in 2008 under President George Bush as a partnership between federal and local law enforcement, compelled local police to share arrestees’ fingerprints with federal immigration officials, a move designed to initiative deportation proceedings.

The program was criticized for its role in deputizing local police as immigration officials, and for driving undocumented communities underground for fear that even reporting a crime to the police could lead to being turned over to ICE. In 2014, President Obama replaced Secure Communities with the Priority Enforcement Program, an effective rebranding strategy that kept many of the same enforcement priorities regarding undocumented migrants with criminal records. The measure was announced alongside the intended carrot of immigration relief in the form of executive action to allow the parents of permanent residents, as well as minors who entered the country, an opportunity to apply for deferred action in order to prevent deportation. The program for parents was blocked this year by a federal court. 

The role of private contractors such as USIS in spearheading the program has received little scrutiny. LinkedIn pages for several former analysts for the firm working on the program provide some clues. One analyst employed by USIS to work on Secure Communities said he “analyzed the immigration status and criminal history of all non-US citizens arrested in the jurisdictions that participated in this program” and “helped prioritize the removal of those individuals who posed the greatest risk to public safety.” [MORE]

White House Tells Feinstein CIA Torture [of non-whites] Report Will Be 'Preserved' But Not Declassified

TechDirt

Over the last few weeks, we've noted that Senator Dianne Feinstein has pushed for the CIA Torture Report that she originally commissioned be declassified (beyond the 500 page, heavily redacted, executive summary that was declassified). And then we wrote about two former Senators asking for President Obama to make sure that he preserve the report as a federal record. This is important. The full report, approaching 7,000 pages and costing $40 million to prepare, apparently details all sorts of wrongdoing by the CIA in torturing people in the Middle East. It's a comprehensive look into not just the horrific program by the CIA, but its failure to produce anything useful and the details of how the CIA lied about it. And here's the problem: Feinstein's colleague on the Senate Intelligence Committee, the current chair, Senator Richard Burr, wants the report destroyed. 

Burr is claiming that the report is a Congressional Record and not a federal record, and thus has asked for all copies to be returned, where he can make sure they are destroyed and never to be read by anyone. This dispute has resulted in people in the Executive Branch being told not to read the report and not to enter it as a federal record, thus keeping it away from being subject to FOIA requests, and while everyone figures out what to do about Burr's request. 

In response to Feinstein's more comprehensive request for declassification, top White House lawyer Neil Eggleston has written a letter saying two things: first that the document will be preserved under the Presidential Records Act, even if the copies at various agencies are returned to the Senate. This is good. It means that even if Burr gets the document back, he can't destroy every single copy, and also that it's likely that someday there will be a release of a declassified version.

I write to notify you that the full Study will be preserved under the Presidential Records Act (PRA). The determination that the Study will be preserved under the PRA has no bearing on copies of the Study currently stored at various agencies.

Then there's the bad news: that day won't be any day soon. Eggleston also informs Feinstein that there is no effort underway to declassify the report, meaning that it's simply not going to happen under this President at all. He does note that under the PRA, the information should be classified for twelve years:

Consistent with the authority afforded to him by the PRA, the President has informed the Archivist that access to classified material, among other categories of information, should be restricted for the full twelve years allowed under the Act. At this time, we are not pursuing declassification of the full Study.

This is a ridiculously weak cop-out. The study deserves to be declassified -- especially as the incoming President elect has said that he plans to reintroduce elements of the torture program and even push for it to go further than it did in the past. Having the public recognize the problems of the program -- not to mention other government officials, seems like it would be fairly important. 

Of course, given that Trump and his team have suddenly picked a fight with the CIA -- including accusing the CIA of lying, perhaps he'll actually be more interested in exposing the CIA's lies detailed in the report. In this age of topsy-turvy news where everything has been flipped upside down, stranger things have happened...

Political Prisoner Jalil Muntaqim Sent to Solitary Confinement for Teaching Inmates Black History

AfrikanBlackcoalition

Political Prisoner Jalil Munatqim (former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army Member) has been in the SHU since Tuesday for teaching Black History on Monday nights which was approved by the administration. He has taught Black History for almost 2 months now starting from 1861-2 with the confiscation act and was currently on 1960’s period anti-Vietnam and the Black Panther Party and other groups during that time period. More information will come forward when Jalil goes to a hearing but for now it can be suspected the authorities didn’t like what he was saying, so Jalil was placed in the SHU with 5 charges. This has been a part of an ongoing program to censor Jalil that has ramped up this year when he beat false charges for writing a letter to an outside organization and being denied newspapers from the outside, stepping up the repression by now removing him from the general population. Jalil would like the word to get out with what is going on and please focus on the Twitter Storm this Wednesday December 14th to Governor Cuomo- directions Below!

In addition to appealing this latest parole denial, Jalil has also submitted a request to Governor Cuomo for commutation of sentence to time served.

Bradenton Cop fired after writing racist posts on Facebook

Bradenton.com

A Bradenton police officer has been fired for writing racist and homophobic posts and comments on Facebook.

Mark Roberts was officially terminated as of Dec. 1, after a nearly four-month-long internal affairs investigation. A command staff review board determined Nov. 30 that the offensive comments and posts, made between Feb. 8, 2013, and June 3, 2016, violated department policy.

Roberts, a Bradenton officer for nine years, was placed on administrative duty and assigned to work at the front desk when the investigation started. He worked there until he was fired.

llegations of conduct unbecoming an officer, neglect of job duties and a violation of general orders and rules regarding social media against Roberts were all sustained, according to internal affairs report.

Roberts admitted making the posts on his personal Facebook page, and in some identified himself as a Bradenton police officer. But he is fighting the firing and is demanding he be reinstated and receive back pay, benefits and seniority rights. He claims the posts and comments did not violate departmental policies.

“He stated all of his postings were simply jokes and did not constitute a pattern of animosity towards any particular group of people,” the report states. “He stated he did not hate gay or black people.”

The report includes copies of several posts in which Roberts made racist or homophobic comments.

Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevan wrote a summary for the report, and cited some of the offensive posts. The first one she lists is Roberts’ response to a posting featuring the father of a black 17-year-old burglar shot dead by a homeowner. Roberts wrote, “I’m glad your kid is dead. Now go make another one.”

In another post, he ridiculed gay men after a baker in Arizona refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.

Bevan said Roberts’ firing sends a clear message to the department that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.

“The Bradenton Police Department strives to maintain a professional and unbiased agency. Any actions by officers that may impair working relationships, impede the performance of duties, impair harmony among coworkers or negatively affect the public perception of the BPD will not be tolerated,” Bevan wrote in a command staff review board summary. “The citizens of Bradenton demand and deserve respect and impartiality from those who serve their community.”

Since Roberts’ termination, Bevan said she and other members of the department’s command staff reaffirmed to all employees that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.

Roberts never denied any of his actions, according to the IA report. But he filed a formal grievance on Wednesday, saying he was fired without just cause, according to the form.

Several Bradenton police officers and dispatchers and a former police officer were questioned during the investigation. Still pending is a separate line of inquiry of all Bradenton police officers and staff who either liked or commented on Roberts’ posts.

The investigation was prompted by an email Bevan received June 3 from someone who said he felt compelled to bring to light “Roberts making openly racist comments online.”

Roberts was first interviewed about the allegations on Aug. 8 and confirmed that he made all the postings he was confronted with, according to the internal affairs report.

When confronted with his comment about the father of the slain burglar, Roberts said he had been fed up with people making excuses for their actions and blaming homeowners or law enforcement when a burglar is shot, according to the report, which was written by police Capt. John Affolter.

“Officer Roberts stated he did not view his post as a stereotype towards black people, and ‘If you do, I’m not the one with the racist views,’” Affolter wrote.

Roberts received commendations in the past, being named officer of the month twice in 2015.

After probe into investigation tampering, Inver Grove Heights White police chief to resign

StarTribune

Months after he was placed on leave amid allegations that he tampered with an investigation, the embattled police chief of Inver Grove Heights is expected to resign, pending the City Council's signoff.

Larry Stanger had been on paid administrative leave since April. He was under criminal investigation for allegedly leaking information to a suspect about a pending search warrant in a theft investigation. Another law enforcement agency contacted city staff about Stanger's alleged involvement in a case his detectives had been working on. 

The Scott County attorney's office reviewed the allegations for possible charges of misconduct by a public official or a data practices violation. In August, County Attorney Ron Hocevar declined to file charges because of insufficient evidence.

Inver Grove Heights city officials also hired a law firm to determine whether Stanger violated any city policies, procedures or codes. The report has not been made public. Stanger couldn't be reached for comment.

Stanger is the third metro top cop to resign in the past week. Ramsey County Sheriff Matt Bostrom announced last week that he will leave his post to lead a University of Oxford study on changing hiring practices to increase trust in police. Mendota Heights Police Chief Mike Aschenbrener also stepped down after 13 years following a tumultuous decade that included the July 2014 line-of-duty shooting death of officer Scott Patrick, who earlier that year filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the department, as well as three internal investigations of officers for various misconduct over the past 12 months.

The City Council was expected to vote on Stanger's separation packages, which includes his resignation, on Monday, said City Administrator Joe Lynch. He and City Attorney Tim Kuntz recommended approval.

The city and Stanger have 15 days to rescind the agreement. After the 15 days, reports about the criminal and internal investigations will be made public. Lynch said. He wouldn't comment on the either report. [MORE]

A White Alabama prosecutor generated $1 million in the last 5 years for his office from pretrial diversion programs.

NY Times

It was a run-of-the-mill keg party in an open field, until one guest, Harvey Drayton Burch III, objected to paying for his beer. Witnesses said Mr. Burch fired a gun over the crowd and began spraying Mace. With partyers fleeing, Mr. Burch jumped into the back seat of a car as it drove away.

The driver had a name well known in Henry County: Douglas A. Valeska II, the son of the local district attorney. When the car was stopped, a deputy found a loaded magazine and knife in Mr. Burch’s pocket, a gun and pepper spray in a backpack, and a pink pill on the floorboard. After Mr. Burch admitted to firing his weapon, he was arrested. The district attorney arrived to take his son and two other passengers home.

Mr. Burch, then 28, was charged with gun and drug possession, but not with firing a weapon or spraying Mace. He did not face prosecution. Instead, District Attorney Douglas A. Valeska granted him pretrial diversion, an alternative to court that is usually reserved for nonviolent offenses. After Mr. Burch paid $2,396 in fees and stayed out of trouble for two years, the case was dismissed in 2011.

The same year, Mr. Valeska gave the Henry County Sheriff’s Office $2,300 from his pretrial diversion fund to pay for scuba gear. The department’s dive team was led by Lt. Troy Silva, the arresting officer in the Burch case. Lieutenant Silva said in an interview that the money was not related to the case and that Mr. Valeska routinely allocated diversion funds for police equipment.

Diversion was created nationwide to spare first-time or low-risk defendants the harsh consequences of a criminal record and to give prosecutors more time to go after dangerous offenders. But things have played out differently in places like southeast Alabama’s Wiregrass Country, where an investigation by The New York Times found that diversion resembles a dismissal-for-sale scheme, available only to those with money and, in some cases, favor.

Mr. Valeska has proved exceedingly adept at using diversion, generating more than $1 million for his office in the last five years.

The money has helped him consolidate his singular power over the justice system in Houston and Henry Counties, where he has presided as the chief prosecutor for three decades.

Dothan, the seat of Houston County and, with 70,000 residents, the regional hub, can feel like it is caught in a Southern time warp, immune to change and defined by racial division. Dothan, where one in three residents is black, has never had a black mayor, police chief, circuit judge or school superintendent. Meetings of the city commission are held in a room adorned with 28 portraits of city leaders, all of them white men. An old photograph shows police officers, including the current chief, posing beside a Confederate flag.

Many black residents say they are at a significant disadvantage in the criminal justice system, complaining of nearly all-white juries and harsher sentences. Last year, two-thirds of those arrested in Dothan were black.

In the 1990s, Mr. Valeska had a string of convictions overturned for illegally striking blacks from the jury pool — a practice critics say continues to this day. He referred to one black defendant as “the yard boy.” He has never hired a black prosecutor.

“If you take Doug Valeska personally, I don’t think he’s racist — I don’t agree with that,” said the Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, a black ex-convict and longtime advocate for criminal justice reform. “But he represents and endorses and enforces and upholds a racist system.”

Mr. Valeska declined repeated requests for an interview.

Though he is a prodigious user of diversion, he has shown little inclination toward its goals of mercy and rehabilitation. At 65, with a thatch of tungsten-colored hair and an impatient forward lean, Mr. Valeska takes an Old Testament approach to justice, asking juries to exact “an eye for an eye.”

Houston County ranks in the top 10 counties nationwide for death row prisoners per capita.

In one case dating from 1996, Mr. Valeska continues to pursue a death sentence that has been overturned four times by higher courts. In 2014, Mr. Valeska successfully moved to bar testimony from a victim’s relative who wanted to request mercy for the defendant. Last month, a jury considered the sentence yet again but deadlocked, and the judge declared a mistrial.

Mr. Valeska is a critic of recent efforts to reduce the prison population through sentencing reform, telling the local newspaper, “I don’t believe that’s the goal of the people and victims of the state of Alabama.”

It is not uncommon for residents to suffer severe penalties for crimes that would be considered minor elsewhere. Lee Brooker, a 77-year-old disabled veteran, was caught growing marijuana in his backyard in 2011. By introducing prior convictions from 1991, Mr. Valeska sought, and won, life without parole for Mr. Brooker.

Still, Mr. Valeska is willing to offer second chances to those who can afford them. Though his circuit is relatively poor and rural, Mr. Valeska’s diversion fees are among the highest in the country, according to a Times review of 225 diversion programs in 37 states.