An Alabama legislator wants to expand the number of circumstances that can allow the death penalty to be imposed.

Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, has prefiled HB 20 for the 2026 session, which would make it a capital offense to murder a person while “knowingly creat(ing) a great risk of death to multiple persons.”

“There are some instances that I feel we should be able to go after the maximum punishment, and increase that punishment to the death penalty, in cases that they have committed these offenses in a public place and in a public manner,” Simpson said in an interview Monday.

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Alabama statute outlines 21 circumstances that enhance the penalty to allow the state to charge someone with capital punishment, such as murdering a person who is less than 14 years old or committing the offense in the presence of someone younger than 14 years old, or killing someone while in commission of a robbery or kidnapping. Murdering a law enforcement officer could also enhance a murder charge to a capital offense.

“It is murder that can be moved to capital murder if it falls under one of those enhancements,” Simpson said. “This bill creates the enhancement for causing danger to multiple people.”

Simpson said he believes the bill would serve as a warning that committing the gravest crimes can come with the harshest punishments.

“I think that capital murder will send a message to the community that we are no longer taking this,” Simpson said. “We have seen an increase in public shootings, a significant increase of this in public areas.”

Carla Crowder, executive director of Alabama Appleseed, a criminal justice reform group, said in a statement that evidence showed that “certainty of arrest and conviction is the greatest deterrent to crime, not length of sentence or level of punishment.” Some civil rights groups have said that capital punishment does not deter crime. Crowder said investments in mental health care and violence prevention would work to cut crime in the state.

“Common sense tells us that someone who’s enraged enough to shoot into a crowd of people is probably not going to check the Code of Alabama to determine whether they’d be subject to death or just life in prison before pulling the trigger,” the statement said.

Simpson also introduced legislation in the spring during the 2025 session that would have also expanded eligibility for the death penalty for those who sexually assault minors. The bill, which did not pass, would have joined Alabama with Florida and Tennessee as the states to pass such laws.

“I am optimistic, I am going to file that bill again and hopefully get it a little further,” Simpson said. “There are a lot of good bills that died in the Senate this year due to timing, and I will see how things play out. Sometimes it takes multiple years for a bill to pass.”