Alabama Prosecutor Must Pay $1,500 Over False Statement to Court

A lawyer in the Alabama Attorney General’s office who made an unsupported and incorrect statement to a federal court in written filings and a hearing must personally pay the court $1,500 in a death row inmate’s case about how he would be executed.

Judge Emily C. Marks of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama also formally reprimanded both the prosecutor who made the statement, Assistant Attorney General Lauren Simpson, and the attorney general’s office Sept. 24.

In a separate order, Marks dismissed the inmate’s case for lack of jurisdiction.

Willie B. Smith III, who is ...