# Ex Parte Apicella

> Supreme Court of Alabama · March 30, 2001 · 809 So. 2d 865

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9934419

## Case

- **Full name:** Ex Parte Andrew Anthony Apicella. (In Re Andrew Anthony Apicella v. State of Alabama).
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Alabama
- **Decided:** March 30, 2001
- **Citations:** 809 So. 2d 865; 2001 WL 306906
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Lyons
- **Judges:** Houston, Lyons, Woodall
- **Cited by:** 64 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- **Red flag:** Abrogated on other grounds by Betterman v. Montana, 136 S. Ct. 1609 (2016).
- Negative treatments: 1
- Distinguished by: 0
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9934419

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- observing that even before the ratification of the Alabama Constitution of 1901, “in cases involving egregious conduct, discretionary awards of punitive damages by juries were subject to post-judgment review by the courts under an abuse of discretion standard”

## Opinion text

I concur in Part I, dealing with the speedy-trial issue, and in Part II, dealing wit the juror-misconduct issue. As to Part III, dealing with the jury-override issue, I concur in the result.
I endorse the analysis in Crowe v. State , 485 So.2d 351 (Ala.Crim.App. 1984), rev'd on other grounds , 485 So.2d 373 (Ala. 1985), cert. denied , 477 U.S. 909 (1986) (the § 11 preservation of the right to trial by jury is a preservation of that right as it existed at the time of the enactment of Alabama's first constitution). Because the jury had no role in sentencing until 1841, after the ratification of our first constitution in 1819, our jury-override statute does not violate § 11, Ala. Const. 1901. Moreover, if we followed Smith v. Schulte , 671 So.2d 1334 (Ala. 1995), cert. denied , 517 U.S. 1220 (1996), and Henderson v. Alabama Power Co ., 627 So.2d 878 (Ala. 1993), and gave primacy to the jury in matters dealing with punishment, then we would perhaps be reverting to a system that would violate the United States Constitution. See Furman v. Georgia , 408 U.S. 238 (1972), and Gregg v. Georgia , 428 U.S. 153 (1976).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9934419. Public record. Not legal advice.