“The answer lies in Alabama’s death-penalty law, the only one of its kind in the country.
“Thirty-one states have the death penalty, and 30 of them require unanimity from a jury in crucial phases of sentencing. Not in Alabama, where a jury can impose a death sentence with a vote of at least 10 to 2. The jury may also recommend life imprisonment, as it did in Smith’s case, but the judge can overrule jurors’ findings no matter what they decide.”