Alabama top stories in brief

• Pornhub has removed access to its site for residents of Alabama. In an effort to prevent children from accessing the site, the Alabama legislature passed laws requiring adult content sites to establish a method to verify users’ age. Additionally, the new law requires that all adult sites place warnings from Alabama Health and Human Services on landing pages warning that pornography has the potential to be addictive and is associated with “emotional and mental illnesses.” Additionally, the warnings must include that “pornography increases the demand for prostitution, child exploitation, and child pornography.” Instead of implementing the new requirements, which come into effect Oct. 1, Pornhub blocked all access to its site. Visitors to Pornhub who live in Alabama will be directed to a landing page, which points to the state law as the reason that they have closed the site and argues for device based age verification instead of site-based. 

• Following the closing of Birmingham-Southern College, Miles College has announced that it has entered a purchase agreement for the BSC property. Miles College, a private, liberal arts, historically Black college, is currently located in Fairfield, Alabama. A statement from Miles’ president, Bobbie Knight, included, “For generations, Miles College has been a cornerstone of progress in our community. This opportunity is a significant next step in our vision to lift our college, campus, and community.” While negotiations for the purchase were announced in June, it is unclear when Miles will move to the property. BSC President Daniel B. Coleman clarified that the purchase was strictly physical and includes the campus buildings and land, saying, “BSC will continue to operate as a corporate entity through the remainder of the wind-down, which includes wrapping up a range of business matters.” The entirety of the process could take months up to years.

• Alabama executed Alan Eugene Miller on Sept. 26 by way of nitrogen hypoxia. Witnesses to the execution observed two minutes of Miller shaking while strapped to the gurney as well as six minutes of him gasping for air. This is Alabama’s second nitrogen execution this year and was Miller’s second experience with execution. In 2022, an attempted execution of Miller by way of lethal injection failed after a vein could not be located, to which he allegedly laid upside down, bleeding, for 20 minutes. Miller was convicted for the murders of Lee Michael Holdbrooks, Christopher S. Yancy and Terry Lee Jarvis in 2000, while the murders took place in 1999. Miller’s defense upheld in court that he suffered from mental illness, which contributed to the murders, but his sentence was carried out. Prior to the execution, Miller also filed a lawsuit to potentially alter his execution sentence, stating that a nitrogen execution was cruel and unusual — violating the Eighth Amendment — and a violation of his equal protection rights. However, Steve Marshall, Alabama attorney general, stated in August that the lawsuit was dropped. Alabama plans to execute Carey Grayson in November, which will be the state’s third execution by nitrogen hypoxia.

• A consent decree between the Department of Justice and Julia Tutwiler Women’s Correctional Facility has been altered to limit the ongoing oversight of Tutwiler’s operations. The decree came from a report released in 2015, conducted by the DOJ, stating that inmates at Tutwiler faced “high risk and threat of sexual abuse by staff,” and was agreed upon in order to avoid a lawsuit filed against the state upon the DOJ’s initial findings. A statement from the suit states, “Women prisoners at Tutwiler suffer serious harm from sexual abuse and sexual harassment by staff, including rape, fondling, voyeurism, and sexually explicit verbal abuse.” Of the 44 requests, included in the consent decree, 38 were recently removed, although it is unclear which ones. Throughout the process of the agreement, an individual was kept on site at Tutwiler for observation and officers were trained to uphold a “zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse and harassment.” In response to the altered decree, John Hamm, Alabama Department of Corrections commissioner, said, “This joint motion to terminate most of the requirements on this consent decree is a credit to our entire team and their dedication to our department and our state. We look forward to ending all court oversight of Tutwiler in the near future.”

• The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Alabama for a recent program implemented by Alabama’s Secretary of State Wes Allen, which it argues is in violation of The Quiet Period Provision. In a press release, the DOJ stated that no changes to the voter rolls can occur within 90 days of an election. “The Quiet Period Provision of federal law exists to prevent eligible voters from being removed from the rolls as a result of last-minute, error-prone efforts,” the DOJ said in its release. In August, Allen announced a plan to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls. According to Allen, over 3,200 people were registered to vote who were not U.S. citizens. The DOJ’s lawsuit comes after some residents in Alabama filed suit after they received notice that they would be removed from the roll, despite being official residents of Alabama. 

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