Attorney General Steve Marshall announced on Apr. 9 that federal courts have dismissed lawsuits brought by death-row inmates James Brownfield and Kerry Spencer, ending long-running challenges to their convictions for triple homicides committed more than twenty years ago.
The announcement is significant because it closes lengthy legal proceedings and brings the State of Alabama closer to carrying out sentences for crimes involving six victims. Marshall said, “After years of delays, these rulings bring us one step closer to justice for six lives violently taken. My office exists for moments like this, to ensure the full force of the law is carried out, no matter the obstacles.”
Brownfield was convicted and sentenced to death for three murders in Jackson County in 2001. He filed a petition challenging his conviction in federal court in 2019. After Attorney General Marshall requested a ruling from the Eleventh Circuit on March 3, 2026, Brownfield’s claims were dismissed by the court on March 16, 2026. Spencer was sentenced to death for killing three Birmingham Police Officers and attempting to kill another officer in 2004. His federal challenge began in 2016; following Marshall’s request on March 3, his case was dismissed on April 1.
The Alabama Attorney General office works statewide as the chief law enforcement agency offering legal representation and prosecuting crimes according to its official website. The office also focuses on initiatives aimed at reducing violent crime and supporting victims according to its official website.
Marshall has served as Alabama’s forty-eighth attorney general since Feb. 10, 2017 according to its official website. The office has previously received recognition such as the Hometown Hero honor from the Alabama League of Municipalities during the pandemic according to its official website, and it has defended convictions under high-profile laws before state courts according to its official website.
Marshall commended his Capital Litigation Division staff “for the years of effort that went into defending the State’s convictions and sentences in these cases.”