A bill awaiting Alabama lawmakers in their 2026 legislative session would broaden the state’s capital murder law to more easily include fatal shootings like the one in Montgomery over the weekend.
Rep. Matt Simpson’s House Bill 20 would add to the current capital offense statute “murder when the defendant knowingly creates a great risk of death to multiple persons.”
“(In cases) where you’re putting multiple people in danger,I believe capital murder should be included,” Simpson, R-Daphne, told Alabama Daily News on Tuesday.
State law currently says the murder of two or more people in one act is a capital offense. Police have said multiple gunmen fired shots in downtown Montgomery Saturday. They’ve not yet said if one or two people killed the two victims, 43-year-old Shalanda Williams and a 17-year-old Jeremiah Morris. Twelve other people were injured.
Simpson, an assistant DA in Mobile County, filed the bill in June and said it came from discussions with the Alabama Sheriffs Association about recent shootings. Those included a June shooting at a Mobile theater where a children’s dance recital was happening and a 2024 May Day shooting in Stockton where three people were killed and more than a dozen were injured.
“Those events are becoming more and more common because people are deciding to settle their differences in public and putting multiple people in danger,” Simpson said.
He pointed to national events, including the September killing of Charlie Kirk at a crowded college event and a June antisemitic attack in Colorado that killed one woman and injured others, that likely wouldn’t be capital offenses in Alabama because only one person died.
Capital murder convictions result in life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
“I want to be able to give prosecutors the opportunity to have another tool in the toolbox, for law enforcement to be able to pursue this punishment if it fits the crime,” Simpson said. “We’ve got to do something to send a message to the public that this is not acceptable. Don’t put everybody else in harm’s way because you can’t resolve your differences.”
Gov. Kay Ivey earlier this week said she is exploring options in response to the shooting. Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed said the city would welcome state assistance but also said lax state gun laws have “taken critical tools away from police officers,” The Associated Press reported.
In 2023, Alabama ended the requirement to obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun in public. Last year, Reed and city officials sought to enact a city ordinance that would require a person carrying a concealed firearm to also carry a photo ID. The effort was abandoned amid concerns about loss of state funding.
Simpson said he doesn’t think the Montgomery shooting was because of the gun law.
“I think you’ve got people that aren’t following the law as it is,” Simpson said. “And if you take guns away from people who do follow the law and only the people that don’t follow the law have guns, then it’s putting more of the community in danger. I disagree with Mayor Reed’s assessment of that, and I wish that we could work together to try to figure out solutions other than finger pointing and blaming the Legislature for a bill that had nothing to do with this incident.”
Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Hazel Green, is supportive of Simpson’s bill.
“We have seen numerous such cases where an offender would have known his actions could cause death or serious harm to multiple victims,” Reynolds, a former Huntsville police chief, told ADN.
“The sudden, violent and sporadic crimes are hard to deter and law enforcement has to be proactive in enforcement actions such as serving warrants, the saturation of high-crime areas, zero tolerance, making arrests for lesser offenses and continuing investigative measures to combat gangs and other criminal activities,” Reynolds said. “Basically, lowering the number of violent offenders on the streets to carry out those violent attacks.”
The 2026 legislative session starts Jan. 13.