A Tough Test for Phillip Pettus' Vanity Law

The State of Alabama has Felony Murder and Capital Murder. What makes certain murders capital crimes? One or more of 20 enhancement charges covering a gamut of situations. The last enhancement to the law was introduced by Green Hill's Phillip Pettus and states: Kill a victim in the presence of their child/children and you face the death penalty or a life sentence without possibility of parole. Rationale? Good question; how many wife abusers think they'll wait for the kids to get home from school to commit the heinous crime? No, these murders are crimes of passion and those who commit them are not thinking rationally.

Interestingly, the first felon arrested under this law was Andrew Cochran of Hamilton who shot his girlfriend's former lover in front of the victim's two children during a Christmas Day custody exchange in 2018. Cochran is still awaiting trial.

 
 

That brings us to Reese and Erin Jones of Madison. The young marrieds are about as far from our first couple as possible. Married, college educated, and planning their family, Reese and Erin seem like the ideal couple, or they did until Sunday, January 30th. 

The above photo? Judging from the date of the photo, their daughter was almost exactly one year old at the time of Erin's murder. Facebook photos show her crawling, but not walking. Obviously, she could sit in a child's swing or something similar, but authorities have not stated specifically where the child was when Reese pointed a gun at Erin and fired. 

Reese worked for a NASA sub-contractor in Huntsville, and presumably Erin was now a stay at home mother. Authorities haven't stated why Reese snapped, but we're sure a loss of income coupled with extra medical expenses and a mortgage on a high-end home are certainly possibilities. Neighbors say the deadly argument they overheard that Sunday afternoon was a first. 

Madison police first charged Reese with Felony Murder. Then a few hours later, they raised the charge. Did they consult with the district attorney's office? It's possible, but Reese will still have to be indicted before he's tried for the crime. Will a grand jury call Erin's death Capital Murder?

Yes, Reese is a vile human being who took away a bright light that he had vowed to love and cherish. He took away both his daughter's mother and ostensibly her father. How much of this horrible shooting will this one year-old remember? We're going with 0%. 

From the Harvard Gazette: It’s been known for a while that babies enjoy a dramatic increase in their ability to remember people and things between 8 and 12 months of age. But this is short-term memory, the kind that loses a telephone number in a minute or less if you don’t write it down.

Where will this case actually go? We'll be following it, but if it's anything like the case of Hamilton's Andrew Cochran, don't expect any immediate updates.