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Ala. Code § 13A-5-51

Mitigating Circumstances - Generally.

Known as the Alabama Criminal Code

The act spans §§ 13A-10-1 to 13A-9-92 (653 sections).

Applied in 31 court decisions — leading case Penry v. Lynaugh (1989)

Most recently applied in Jimmy Davis, Jr. v. Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections (October 2024)

(Acts 1981, No. 81-178, §13.)

How often courts cite this section

19841990200020102020202430
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

Mitigating circumstances shall include, but not be limited to. the following:

(1) The defendant has no significant history of prior criminal activity;

(2) The capital offense was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance;

(3) The victim was a participant in the defendant’s conduct or consented to it;

(4) The defendant was an accomplice in the capital offense committed by another person and his participation was relatively minor;

(5) The defendant acted under extreme duress or under the substantial domination of another person;

(6) The capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired; and

(7) The age of the defendant at the time of the crime.

Official source: Alabama Legislature (ALISON). Reproduced from public-domain Alabama statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.