Alabama Legislature passes bill that would bar capital murderers from making money off creative works

Capital murderers couldn't earn from creative works
Saturday, May 09, 2009
TOM GORDON
News staff writer

The Alabama Legislature has passed a bill that would stop inmates convicted of capital crimes from earning money from paintings, books or other works of art created in prison.

The bill will head to Gov. Bob Riley for his review. The ban would also apply to any third parties who sell the items.

Inmates can not sell anything they create in prison, whether or not it is related to their crime, under the bill.

"If inmates try to make money off their crimes or notoriety, we will take that money and give it to their victims," said Sen. Zeb Little, D-Cullman.

The measure was a response to reports that Alabama Death Row inmates, including convicted murderer Jack Trawick, had done grotesque sketches of mutilated bodies or body parts that were for sale on the Internet. Trawick is scheduled to die June 11 for the 1992 abduction-murder of Stephanie Gach in Birmingham.

State Rep. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, who has pushed the bill for four years, said he expected Gov. Bob Riley to sign it into law. Little sponsored the legislation in the Senate.

Ward said that under the bill, someone convicted of capital murder or another capital crime will face "an automatic restitution penalty and that restitution penalty grabs at anything that is sold that you created or made while you were ... incarcerated."

The minimum restitution amount is $50,000, but a judge who presides in the case leading to the inmate's conviction can set it higher, Ward said.