Friday, Sheffield Police Department Sgt. Nick Risner was one of two officers shot while on duty. A day later, he died from that injury.
Just hours before, the Alabama Legislature ended a special session by passing HB 2, a sentencing reform bill, which Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law, along with a $1.3 billion prison construction package.
HB 2 makes a 2015 law retroactive for those convicted before that passage of that law, which allows for a supervised release near the end of an inmate’s sentence.
One of the critics of using the special session to entertain such sentencing reform measures was State Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Daphne). Elliott argued the time was inappropriate to debate those so-called reforms when the focus should have been on prison construction.
During an appearance on Monday’s broadcast of Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5’s “The Jeff Poor Show,” Elliott said he took umbrage with his colleagues who voted for the bill while expressing their condolences for Risner.
“[I] have a tremendous amount of respect for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, especially in the Senate,” he said. “They are pensive. They are thoughtful. They make decisions they believe are correct. And they make compromises, which we all know is necessary in order to move impactful legislation oftentimes. But this one — after hearing from my sheriffs, after hearing from my district attorney, after hearing from the Attorney General of the State of Alabama, and after going to just one too many officer-involved-shooting funerals, somebody who died in the line of [duty], it’s just not willing to go along with and willing to vote for. Those votes have serious impacts.”
“And then to see over the weekend — Jeff, some of my colleagues posting about the death of this officer, and they’re heartbroken and saddened,” Elliott continued. “And the same day, you’re voting to let violent criminals out of jail — I just don’t know how to reconcile those feelings. I don’t know how to help them with that grief when on the one hand, they’re clearly upset that a man who should have still been in prison is out killing police officers, while at the same time voting to let dangerous people out is hard to reconcile for me.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.
