July 15, 2013

No parole for Judith Ann Neelley -- ever

By SCOTT WRIGHT

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FORT PAYNE —  Despite recent speculative news reports to the contrary, convicted killer Judith Ann Neelley will not be eligible for parole next year.

Or ever.

Several news outlets in the region reported earlier this month that Neelley, convicted 30 years ago of the 1982 murder of 13-year-old Lisa Ann Millican, could be eligible for parole in 2014 after her death sentence was commuted to life in prison by Gov. Fob James in 1999. According to Alabama law at the time, anyone convicted to serve life in prison was automatically eligible for parole after 15 years.

The Post shared one version of the report on its Facebook page on July 6, 2013, along with a link to an exclusive story that ran in The Post over a decade ago that eventually helped explain the origin of the earlier confusion about Neelley’s possible parole.

It turns out that a little-known law passed by the Alabama Legislature less than a year after the former governor was quoted in The Post will keep Neelley behind bars for the rest of her life.

During an exclusive interview with this reporter in July 2002, James said he felt compelled to commute Neelley's death sentence because “that DeKalb County jury, which heard all the facts of that heinous crime in the months right after the events took place, convicted her to life in prison,” he said. “Then, the judge changed her sentence to death.”

James pointed specifically to the original jury verdict in explaining why he instructed his staff to begin researching the case during his second term as governor. James, who told The Post he is a firm believer in capital punishment, ultimately determined from his research that life in prison was the appropriate sentence for Neelley.

“To kill her would not be justice,” James said in 2002.

Neelley, a native of Tennessee, was convicted in 1983 of the brutal death of Millican, a runaway from Cedartown, Ga. After kidnapping Millican from Riverbend Mall in Rome, Ga. on Sept. 25, 1982, Neelley and husband Alvin Neelley tortured and raped Millican at a motel in Scottsboro. They then drove to DeKalb County, where Judith Ann Neelley injected Millican with drain cleaner, shot her in the back and dumped her body in Little River Canyon.

Alvin Neelley died in 2005 while serving a life sentence in Georgia for a separate crime.

Ninth Judicial Circuit District Attorney Mike O'Dell, an assistant D.A. in 1983 who helped prosecute Judith Ann Neelley, told The Post in 2002 that he could not imagine what made James commute Neelley's death sentence on the same day the state had requested a date for her execution.

“I was shocked and disturbed when I found out Gov. James commuted Neelley's sentence,” O'Dell said over a decade ago. “He did this without speaking to (the D.A.'s office) or asking our opinion. It is clear he did not want us to be involved in his decision.”

Reached last week at his office in Fort Payne, O'Dell said he believes the passage of time has given him a better understanding of James' motivations.

“Although Gov. James' decision was shocking at the time, I have come to believe that it was his intent to have Neelley serve life without the possibility of parole,” O'Dell said Friday. “He was apparently given, and relied upon, erroneous advice from his legal advisors. He did not realize he was providing an opportunity for parole at a later date.”

After James commuted Neelley's sentence, it was O'Dell who helped lead the crusade to change state law and keep Neelley and others like her behind bars for life. O'Dell said he and several colleagues argued for a legislative remedy using what they perceived to be James’ “true intentions.”

“Hearings were held at Northeast Community College in Rainsville by members of the Alabama House and Senate Judiciary Committees,” O'Dell said. “Testimony was taken and pertinent issues were addressed. In the end, the legislators saw the wisdom in our efforts to ‘fix’ the Neelley situation.”

Unbeknownst to the writers of the July 2013 news story about Neelley's possible parole, the law passed by the state Legislature in 2003 mandated that any death sentence commutation in Alabama automatically become a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. The law was made retroactive to September 1998 to ensure Neelley's lifelong incarceration.

Following a 2009 story in the Montgomery Advertiser in 2009, Neelley's name was removed from a list of potential eligible parolees by the Alabama Department of Corrections.

O'Dell said he takes very seriously his role to prevent any attempt by Neelley to ever gain her release.
“I have made it my mission to keep this vicious killer behind bars and I will do whatever I have to do to fight any, and all, efforts,” O'Dell said last week. “In nearly 35 years of prosecuting criminals I have never come across anyone who displayed such total depravity and indifference to human life.”

O'Dell said he remains grateful to former state Sen. Lowell Barron and a host of other local legislators who gave their support and encouragement during the run-up to passage of what he called the “Neelley Bill”.

“I speak not just for myself and my office, but for district attorneys all across Alabama,” O'Dell said. “This is one of those instances where our jurisdiction took the lead and righted a wrong that affected our entire state.”