THE ISSUE: Sales of Death Row inmates' artwork have spiked.

Blame state Sen. Phil Poole, D-Moundville. And throw in his Democratic allies in the Senate.

Thanks to them, convicted killers on Alabama's Death Row continue to be able to profit from vile, often pornographic artwork they've done and mailed to people who sell it online.

Poole and cohorts killed a "notoriety" bill in June on the last day of the legislative session that would have made it harder for anyone to profit from the sale of inmate memorabilia. The bill was poised to pass, but Poole was mad at House Republicans who had helped uphold Gov. Bob Riley's line-item veto of $1 million set aside for road projects in Poole's district. (Republicans believed the money was a pork payoff to Poole for switching to the Democratic majority's side at the last minute in the battle for control of the Senate.) So Poole and company sent House Republicans' bills to the Senate's Death Row.

Poole, were he to offer an explanation about why he killed the bill, likely would say turnabout is fair play. But there is no good reason - none - for Poole to have stopped this bill, and many others, for that matter, from passing on the session's last day.

In the six months since, Death Row inmates' artwork is more popular than ever, according to a Thursday story in The News by Stan Diel. The number of items for sale on the three most popular "murderabilia" Web sites has spiked since the bill died in the Legislature and efforts began to pass a federal law, said Andy Kahan, a victims advocate who has helped several states pass such laws.

Driving the sales could be the fear such artwork will be outlawed, he said. Great. Poole's pettiness has given sickos six more months to buy things like a sketch of the mutilated corpse of a young woman or a drawing of a man holding a severed head.

Rep. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, who sponsored the notoriety bill this year, already has prefiled it for the upcoming session that starts in February. "It's my No. 1 priority," he said.

In case Poole or anyone else keeps the bill from becoming law this next session, a similar federal bill is expected to be introduced in the spring. That bill would bar prisoners from delivering anything for "interstate or foreign commerce" through the mail.

It's bad enough victims' family and friends have had to suffer from knowing killers' putrid artwork is for sale on the Internet. What does it say about Poole and his Democratic allies in the Senate that they killed a notoriety bill which would have reined in anyone's ability to profit from it? They have earned the kind of notoriety no politician should want.

© 2007 The Birmingham News
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