September 19, 2007 Press Conference Remarks of Attorney General Troy King Regarding the LaSamuel Gamble Death Sentence Issue

September 19, 2007

(MONTGOMERY)— LaSamuel Gamble has been convicted of murdering three people in cold blood. District Attorney Robby Owens sounded the retreat of common sense and justice when he testified to free this monster from Death Row where a Shelby County jury had sent him ten years ago. Owens says he was compelled to do so. He is wrong – wrong on the facts, wrong on the law, and wrong on his duty. Whether 30 DAs or 42 DAs call for me to do so, I will never turn my back on Alabama’s victims or desecrate the graves of those who Gamble murdered.

Here are the facts about the man who Robby Owens is leading the effort to remove from Death Row.

His name is LaSamuel Gamble. By the time Gamble left John’s 280 Pawn Shop on July 25, 1996, he had participated in a three-month long crime spree across Shelby, Chilton, and Jefferson Counties during which he had robbed at least ten stores, four people had been killed, including one Gamble himself pulled the trigger to kill, and two others had been injured, one of whom Gamble had shot three times. Gamble was the one who picked out John’s 280 Pawn Shop to rob, and he is the one who planned the crime. Gamble was no innocent observer. He was armed and ready to kill. In fact, he shot at John Burleson when his accomplice, Marcus Presley’s gun jammed. Thanks to Gamble’s poor aim, District Attorney Owens would now give him a free pass from the sentence he earned.

Crime has soared in this state because people have made excuses for criminals and because consequences are slow in coming if they come at all. In the past, those making excuses have been criminal defense lawyers.

Incredibly, they have now been joined by those who claim to be ministers of justice – Robby Owens and the district attorneys who proudly condone his actions. They stood together Monday to support each other — to complain that one of their own had been attacked. I take my stand with the law and with the victims of crime. Together, we say that there is still right and there is still wrong. And we make no apology for it.

Owens says that Gamble cannot be put to death because his accomplice cannot be put to death. But, when determining a defendant’s punishment, a court cannot consider his accomplice’s sentence. That is not my opinion. That is the LAW. And it has been the law in Alabama for 25 years.

Robby Owens and his DA friends have attempted to justify their actions by taking arguments we made in the Roper case out of context. We did argue that if the Supreme Court freed juvenile killers from Death Row, it would produce a bizarre result relative to their adult accomplices. These DAs and I have never agreed beyond that. Robby Owens believes that, once Roper was decided, Gamble should also be set free. He is wrong. I have never and I will never excuse a convicted capital murderer from paying the price he owes for his evil deeds.

In the capital cases my Office and I have prosecuted, we have sought and won the death penalty every time. Never once have we returned to court and asked that our work be unnecessarily undone. Never will we. Instead, I have been proud to enforce the law and honor victims by personally making the sentencing arguments and winning justice for them.

With their claims that I took over a case that I was already responsible for, the DAs are again attempting to spin and distort and to draw attention away from the real issue. The real and the only issue here is that they say killers like Gamble don’t deserve a death sentence, I say they do. Since Mr. Owens continues to question the motives for my actions, however, let me explain.

On September 5th, the judge ordered a new penalty phase trial for Gamble. Had I not taken this case, this portion of the trial would have been returned to Mr. Owens for prosecution. Because Mr. Owens has publicly stated that he would side with Gamble’s attorneys at the re-sentencing and fight against the death sentence Gamble earned and received, I had no choice but to take this case and to be the voice of the law and the people of this State. That is why I took this case, and that is why I would do it again.

Robby Owens and his allies claim that no Attorney General has ever publicly criticized a district attorney. Perhaps this is because Alabama has never seen such a shocking disregard for victims and for the law by a district attorney. Mr. Owens has said that "if I am going to be his boss, I should able to do his job." As to LaSamuel Gamble, that is exactly what I am doing. After all, somebody needs to. That is the same thing we did with Jeremy Jones and Jimmy Lamar Killingsworth – two more capital murderers that this Office sent to Death Row after taking those cases from local district attorneys, men who stood with Robby Owens, and who, themselves, refused to do their jobs.

It is unfortunate that the working relationship these DAs profess to miss with my office was one that they and their paid lobbyist repeatedly chose to abandon when they were asked to pick sides in the battle to protect Alabama’s children from predators. To the detriment of our children, the DA’s Association took the side of criminals over children when they stripped the new sex offender law of minimum, mandatory sentences for class C felonies involving children. The DA’s Association did it again when they worked against my legislation allowing child victims to testify by closed circuit television rather than forcing them to endure the nightmare of facing their abusers in an open courtroom. They did it again when they opposed protecting unborn children in this state from violence and giving conscientious prosecutors the ability to prosecute those who harm them.

Alabama is safer, not because of their efforts, but in spite of them, as the Alabama Legislature sided with me and gave our people these important new protections. And now the DA’s Association and its elite leadership are trying to do it again as they work to free LaSamuel Gamble from Death Row arguing that their authority to determine the appropriate sentence must be "unquestioned." Under the power grab contained in that one sentence, those historical checks and balances – juries and judges who recommend and pronounce sentences – upon which our justice system rests would no longer be needed. That is frighteningly un-American.

It is time to mean what we say and what we must say is: No more. No more standing with criminals. No more excusing criminal conduct. No more coddling criminals. No more standing against victims.

The death penalty is the public’s strongest deterrent to murder.

If an adult puts a gun in the hand of a juvenile and sends him to kill, the adult should be held fully accountable. We must resist efforts that would encourage adults to recruit children so that they can engage in their evil and murderous plans without fear that a DA in Alabama will give them death so long as their juvenile pawn cannot receive it. That is the issue here. To the District Attorneys across Alabama who turned their backs on victims in order to stand with Robby Owens, know this – if you won’t enforce the law, I am able, I am willing, and I will do it for you.