Latest Headlines
- County Receives Increased BTC Offer Of $25 Million For OLF-8, But There Are Several Potential Sticking Points
- Jay Royals Win 1A State Championship, Their First In 54 Years
- Victim In Alabama May Day Shooting Identified As Century Woman
- Shoulder Closures On I-10 Near Highway 29 Begin Today For Storm Repairs
- ECSO Holds Memorial For Fallen Deputies
- Tate’s Bray Touchstone Signs Baseball Scholarship With Gulf Coast State College
- Six-Run Inning Sinks Wahoos In Loss To Montgomery
- Hit And Run Crash Backs Up Traffic For Miles
- Northview Lady Chiefs Fall To Holmes County In Region 1-1A Final (With Gallery)
- Judge Orders Competency Evaluation For Man That Evaded Capture In Century Woods
Inmate Passes Away On Alabama’s Death Row
January 7, 2013
An inmate on Alabama’ s death row has passed away of natural causes.
Alabama Department of Corrections death row inmate Clarence Leland Simmons,74, was pronounced dead at approximately 12:38 a.m., on Monday, January 7. Simmons died of multiple chronic illnesses with final cause of death pending autopsy results from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. Simmons passed away in the healthcare unit at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
Convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death out of Jefferson County on January 9, 1998, Simmons served 16 years, 11 months, and 29 days on Alabama’s death row.
Pictured: Alabama death row inmate Clarence Leland Simmons seen in an undated photograph.
Comments
17 Responses to “Inmate Passes Away On Alabama’s Death Row”
I have to say if thats how much money is being spend for inmates on death row. Then we have A serious problem. Someone is messing up. Why in the world would we spend that much money on a murderer? No wonder we have crimes, and poverty. Our currency is being spend in the wrongplace.
The Bible says not to kill, but it also says an eye for an eye. Why don’t we give these murders the same respect they give their victims none!!! Our government is so screwed up. Give the murders time and all they do is milk the system. There should not be a system for them to milk. Shot,stabbed,chocked to death, raped and then killed, no matter what they should receiver the same punishment as they dished out to their victims.
Just an excerpt I read from an online “The death penalty is not a deterrent to crime,” Deiter said. “Some of the states with the highest number of executions also have the highest homicide rates. Studies have shown it can cost more than $30 million to carry out an execution. Only one in 10 death penalty cases results in an execution and when you combine the legal fees for the appeals of all of those defendants, it makes that one execution very costly. That money could be better spent on hiring more police officers, installing better lighting in high-crime areas, providing education aimed at preventing crime and doing other things to make sure crimes do not happen.”site..
If this is indeed true we should just bring back hanging.
To Price of Death;
Where does this $2 million dollar number come from? I find that hard to believe.
If that is true, I would say something is seriously not right. So, who or what is this 2 mil going to. Meds to kill do not cost that, the person who flips the switch only gets $175 extra pay (at Holman). Thats absolutely insane! IF it is true, I’d like to see an itemized sheet on the cost of each item – probably like the rest of our govt/president (notice I didn’t use a capital letter in president-he doesn’t deserve it!) just another way of screwing taxpayers out of more money! This is not the land of freedom anymore-its the land of shame!
Yeah, that’s a real shame. Next!
@ SHO-NUFF, to kind of answer your question inmates are entitled to more than one appeal. they get either 5 or 8 (at least in florida they do) and they have so many years in which to file those appeals. Then after those are exhausted they have other avenues in which they can try to get a sentence reduction or other means of getting off death row.
@ price of death – if those numbers are correct for the state of alabama (i’m going to take your word that they are since I haven’t looked) that still doesn’t factor in all of his chronic medical conditions, dental, mental health issues (assuming he saw a counselor at any time during his incarceration) and other fees. Inmate medical care can become insanely expensive if they have to leave the prison for outside care, not only does the state have the outside medical costs they also have to supply the man power to sit with the inmate and transport the inmate (transport costs fuel, overtime for officers, or ambulance fee or rarely life flight fees) not to mention if he had on going lab work, ekg, xray ect for his conditions. So while the cost of housing and feeding him may have been lower in cost for the amount of years he was actually on death row compared to the cost of execution i’m going go out on a limb and say his medical costs compounded that number majorly. (and lets not forget that he would most likely have been on death row for many more years before his execution which would have added to the $200,000+ number you had for expenses so far)
What if the guy was innocent? There was a documentary I watched a few years back, called “The Thin Blue Line.” I recommend everybody should watch it.
The Thin Blue Line is a 1988 documentary film by Errol Morris, depicting the story of Randall Dale Adams, a man convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a murder he did not commit. Adams’ case was reviewed and he was released from prison approximately a year after the film’s release.
He spent twelve years in prison for something he did not do; and he was placed on the table thrice (I think it was), strapped to the table twice….when, at the last moment, the call came into the room that another appeal came up, etc….
Interesting to watch….and the guy that really did do the crime…..well, you have to watch to find out what became of him.
Do any of you actually know the cost of execution? It cost $43 a day today to,house an inmate. So if we apply that to the time he was housed in prison that is a little over $298,000. To execute a death row inmate can cost a over $2 million per execution. So with him passing away, Alabama actually saved money.
Cheat the hangman.
I don’t understand how the convicted stay on death row for so many years.
The guilty are entitled an appeal, but almost 17 years?
I bet there are plenty in the graveyard wrongfully convicted and executed. With modern DNA evidence, it is rare for someone to be wrongfully convicted, as it was years ago.
I don’t know if it is right to take a life, because the Bible says not to kill. The best thing to do is not live a life that will get you on death row in the first place.
I agree with all the post on here so far…
It’s a shame that you can go out and kill folks, get sent to death and live a much better life than a lot of people and the tax payers have to pay for it!!!
I wonder how many millions of dollars the state of Alabama spent on this mans heathcare for the multiple chronic illnesses? At least we won’t have to spend anymore money on this Killer…
We need to plant big oak trees at our court houses across the country and go back to how it use to be done!!! If they confess or we absolutely know they are guilty, string um up withend a year of conviction.
I think our crime rate would come way down if we did and save trillions of dollars on top of it!!
Why is anyone complaining. We (not that I’m an Alabama taxpayer) got everything we paid for. Really, we got what we paid for. That does include a government that OK’s this system in which a murderer lives on taxpayer dime for 16.8 years after he ruined lives… You go.
Only thing sad about this is we fed housed and clothed him it’s a shame our states
Doesn’t sympathize with victim they do for the convict he didn’t give his victim almost 18 extra years after appeals if courts would put them to death we would have more room n prisons and imagine all the extra money the states would have to donate to victims recovery !!
A fellow opened a bottle on the beach. Out came a mighty genie. The genie explained he was so mad at being trapped so long that he had sworn he would only grant one wish to whomever freed him. He would let him choose how he would die.
The fellow thought a moment and responded, “of old age.”
The genie disappeared in a puff of smoke, as genies are wont to do.
Maybe this fellow met the genie.
Too bad mother nature beat us to it. It’s a shame that so many people spend years and years and years on death row. It should be capped at a certain number of years (3 maybe 5) and then done. They have their appeals process and then as soon as it’s up so is their time. In Florida (as well as other states I’m sure) inmates are on death row for decades… it’s ridiculous.
Yes I know they are someone’s family.. but they are there for a reason and shouldn’t sit on death row until they die of old age.
^ Too much!
almost 17 years on death row!!! should have been dead years ago.. thats our judicial systym for you. Wonder how much ole clarence cost us taxpayers??!