In a filing made earlier this month, plaintiffs in the Mabel Amos Memorial Trust case have asked a judge to force Alabama’s attorney general, Steve Marshall to recuse himself from the case due to conflicts of interest. 

The trust was established by Amos — who was the first woman elected secretary of state in Alabama — in 1993 to award scholarships to students who needed financial assistance for college. 

Marshall and members of Mabel Amos’s family filed consolidated lawsuits in 2022 and 2023. The original filing by members of Amos’s family claimed breach of trust, breach of contract and fraud by Regions Bank and members of the Memorial Fund board. 

Marshall filed a motion in 2023 accusing board member and Alabama Ethics Commission director, Tom Albritton, as well as two other board members, of engaging in prohibited behavior for the trust. According to the filing, Albritton’s son and daughter had both received scholarship funds while Albritton was a board member. 

In August of 2024, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Greg Griffin granted the request of plaintiffs and appointed a certified public accountant to take possession of and administer the trust, as well as make factual findings in the ongoing case. 

Marshall appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court to vacate Griffin’s order. On Jan. 11, 2024, the Supreme Court upheld the portion of Griffin’s order to appoint the CPA, but vacated the portion of the order that allowed the CPA to make factual findings, ruling that it was beyond Griffin’s authority to delegate those responsibilities. 

In their filing this month requesting Marshall’s recusal, plaintiffs point out that Marshall has received campaign donations from Regions. The filing also notes that the law firm representing Regions, Maynard Nexson, has received millions from the Attorney General’s Office for defending the Alabama Department of Corrections. Additionally, Tom Albritton’s brother, Ben Albritton, is an attorney working for Marshall in the Attorney General’s Office. 

Alabama top stories in brief

Over 20 Alabamians received pardons for January 6

• After his inauguration, President Donald Trump issued pardons to close to 1,600 people charged with crimes connected to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capital. 

• Twenty-two of those pardoned were from Alabama. 

• Of the Alabamians pardoned, five had ties to extremist or fringe groups, and three had ties to the anti-government militia movement, the Oath Keepers.

• Sixteen of those pardoned had pleaded guilty to at least one of the charges levied against them.

• Lonnie Leroy, one of the five with extremist ties, had entered a plea deal and was sentenced to 46 months in prison for possession of an unregistered destructive device and carrying a pistol without a license. 

• Officers discovered an M4 Carbine assault rifle and eleven molotov cocktails in the back of Leroy’s truck on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Legislation supported by Bureau of Pardons and Paroles would prevent licensure boards discriminating against formerly incarcerated

• The legislation is being drafted by Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, and would prevent occupational licensing boards from denying applications based solely on a past criminal conviction. 

• The proposal does include exceptions for boards to deny applicants based on criminal history relevant to the specific profession for which they were seeking licensure. 

• An occupational licensing board is “any state board, agency, commission, or other entity in this state that is established for the primary purpose of regulating the entry of individuals into, or the conduct of individuals within, or both, a particular profession or occupation, and that is authorized to issue licenses.”

Legislators have 60% of funding for second of new prisons

• Originally, $1.2 billion was set aside by the Legislature to pay the cost of the two 4,000 bed prisons planned to help replace some of the Alabama Department of Corrections current facilities. 

• The cost for the first of the prisons, which is under construction in Elmore County, wound up rising to over $1 billion, consuming the majority of the funds intended for both projects.

• Legislators have been attempting to fund the construction of the Escambia County prison without shifting funds from other sources. 

• According to Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Baldwin, chair of the Senate budget committee, some of the funding would come from the unspent funding set aside for hiring ADOC officers. 

• Officials have said that the prison in Escambia County is expected to be less expensive than the one currently being constructed in Elmore County. 

Lawmakers consider hybrid funding system for K-12

• For months, lawmakers have been discussing possible changes to the current attendance-based K-12 school funding formula, and now are coalescing around the idea of a hybrid system.

• At a recent meeting of the Legislative Study Commission on Modernizing K-12 School Education, lawmakers discussed keeping the base funding model, but making changes that would allow for funds to be dedicated to specific student needs. 

• According to the committee’s co-chair, Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, choosing a hybrid model would make it possible for changes to be enacted in the 2025 legislative session, whereas he believes a larger overhaul of the system could not be completed until the 2026 session.

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