Despite a 2017 Alabama law banning judges from sentencing defendants to death when juries recommend life in prison, 30 inmates remain sentenced under those circumstances on death row.

A bill that would require courts to resentence people sentenced to death by judicial override was recently killed by a legislative committee, leaving those inmates to face death sentences juries did not want.

Why did the judges in these cases decide to overrule the juries?

A look at the inmates’ appeals offers a glimpse into the judges’ thought processes.

In one case, the judge theorized the jury was “probably emotionally and mentally worn out” after the defendant’s family asked them to spare their relative’s life.

In others, judges said jury “outbursts” showed they were incapable of rendering a death sentence recommendation. Others said the heinousness of the crimes was enough to warrant execution.

Here are those 30 inmates:

Anthony Lee Stanley

Stanley was convicted of beating Henry Earl Smith, 52, to death with a baseball bat and stabbing him 36 times during a 2005 Tuscumbia robbery.

“This crime was extremely gruesome and barbaric,” the judge wrote.

“It was perpetuated with a heartless infliction of brutality and with utter indifference to the suffering of the victim and with a total disregard of human life….It is difficult for this court to imagine any case more deserving of the death penalty. The senseless barbaric and animalistic nature of this crime provides a major reason this court believes a jury override not only is justified but necessary,” the judge wrote.

James William McGowan

McGowan was convicted of using a hammer to fatally beat Hiram and Mamie Johnson, ages 82 and 79, in Escambia County in 1994.

“The death of Hiram Johnson, an elderly man, by repeated blows to the head with a hammer, beginning while he was upright, and continuing while he was on his hands and knees would have caused great pain and appreciable suffering beyond that of other capital murder cases,” the decision for execution stated.

“The use of many blows is atrocious. The infliction of great pain is heinously cruel. The decedent would not have been able to maintain a posture on his hands and knees if he were not conscious. The death of his elderly wife, Mamie Johnson, was caused by repeated hammer blows to the head while she was in her bed. She was in a position to see the killing of her husband and was attempting to get out of bed when she was killed. She was forced to see the manner of her own death before being killed in the same manner as her husband. This was torturous and must have caused her great fear, anguish, and psychological pain prior to her own death.”

McGowan also pleaded guilty in 1996 to the murder of a technical college instructor in Escambia County hours before the Johnsons’ slayings. He received a life sentence for that crime.

Oscar Roy Doster

Doster was convicted of the 2002 murder of Paul LeMaster in Covington County after he and three other men escaped the county jail.

Doster was not the triggerman.

He was arrested, but broke out again and killed a man in Texas in 2005, court records show. He pleaded guilty in the Texas case, and was sentenced to life.

The judge in Alabama claimed the jury was not privy to Doster’s past criminal history and his second escape, along with evidence of Doster’s “future dangerousness.”

Christie Michelle Scott

Scott was convicted of capital murder in the death of her 6-year-old son, Mason Scott, after she set her Russellville house on fire for insurance money in 2008.

She took out a $100,000 life insurance policy on Mason 12 hours before he died and had another $75,000 policy.

Christie Michelle Scott’s family asked the jury to spare her life.

“The jury was probably emotionally and mentally worn out,” the judge wrote. “The jury may have given too much weight to the mitigating factor of the emotional testimony of family and friends.”

“Killing your own child for money by burning him alive is too much to overcome,” the judge continued. “Even with the jury’s recommendation, the aggravating factors clearly outweigh the mitigating factors. Justice must be served. The only way justice can be served in this case is by a sentence of death.”

Gregory Lance Henderson

Henderson was convicted of killing Lee County sheriff’s Deputy James Anderson in 2009.

Anderson died while pinned under Henderson’s car during a traffic stop in Smiths Station.

The judge pointed out that Anderson’s family wanted the death penalty and that the woman dating Henderson at the time testified he told her he would kill any officer who tried to pull him over.

Jeffrey Day Rieber

Rieber robbed and murdered convenience store clerk Glenda Phillips Craig in Huntsville in 1990.

Craig was alive when she was found shot and lying behind the store counter, but she died shortly after.

The judge told Rieber the crime “was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel compared to other capital offenses.”

David Lee Roberts

Roberts was convicted of shooting Annetra Jones while Roberts was a house guest at Jones’ boyfriend’s home in Marion County in 1992.

Money was stolen from Jones and the home was burned to hide evidence.

The judge in Roberts’ case overrode the jury because the murder was committed during a robbery, according to court records.

Thomas Dale Ferguson

Thomas Dale Ferguson was sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of Harold Pugh, and his 11-year-old son, Joey, in a fishing boat.

Ferguson was the gunman in the incident. He was one of five others charged in the murders.

“The defendant had the opportunity to reflect and withdraw from his actions and chose not [to] do so; that the defendant’s capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law was not substantially impaired,” the judge wrote.

Thomas Robert Lane

Lane was convicted of capital murder in the 2003 slaying of his estranged wife, Theresa Lane, who was drowned in her bathtub in Irvington.

The judge overrode the recommendation of life without parole because the murder was committed during a burglary and because evidence showed Lane murdered his wife for insurance money.

Bobby Wayne Waldrop

Waldrop was convicted of capital murder in the fatal 1998 stabbings of his grandparents, Sherrell and Irene Prestridge, in Randolph County.

Sherrell Prestridge was stabbed 43 times while Irene Prestridge was stabbed 46 times.

“Bobby Waldrop needs to get the death sentence, and if we are not going to do it that way, then we don’t need to do it at all,” the judge wrote.

“Even when I give full measure …. to the fact that there are no prior convictions, this is not a close case. This was a cold, heinous, atrocious, and cruel killing. A needless killing. And, if we are going to have a death penalty, this case was made for it.”

Alonzo Lydell Burgess

Burgess was convicted of capital murder for the 1993 murders of his girlfriend, Sheila Nnodimele, 31, and Alexis Nnodimele, 8.

He beat the victims with part of a car jack.

“Killing three human beings, two of whom were children, intentionally and deliberately, when taken together with defendant’s previous conviction of a felony involving threats of violence to at least one child under 14 years of age, evidences a total and complete disregard for the value of human life,” the judge wrote.

Vernon Lamar Yancey

Yancey was convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of grocery store clerk Mattie “Pee-Wee” Sports during a 1995 Phenix City robbery.

Yancey had a sawed-off shotgun concealed in a raincoat when he fired once, at close range, instantly killing her.

The judge said aggravating circumstances outweighed the two witnesses who urged the jury to vote for life in prison for Yancey.

Westley Devon Harris

Harris was convicted of using guns to slaughter his girlfriend’s family members one-by-one in Crenshaw County before abducting her in 2002.

The dead included the parents, grandmother and three brothers of Janice Ball, who was 16 at the time and testified against her one-time boyfriend.

Prosecutors said Harris, under the influence of drugs, first killed Mila Ruth Ball, the grandmother who had tried to run him off, binding her with electrical tape in the kitchen and firing a shotgun into her face.

The bodies of Janice Ball’s mother, JoAnn Ball, 35, and brother Tony, 17, were found in a nearby trailer; brother John, 14, in the kitchen of the main house where the grandmother died; brother Jerry, 19, stuffed in a car trunk; and father Willie Hasley, 40, who also went by the name Willie Haslip, in a hog pen.

The judge in Harris’ case was by the jury’s recommendation.

“It is not easy to discern why seven members of the jury voted against the death penalty in this case,” the judge wrote.

Jeffrey Lee

Lee was convicted in the shooting deaths of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson during a 1998 pawn shop robbery in Orrville.

“He opened fire upon entering the door. He emptied his weapon, firing as quickly as he could, shot after shot. Miraculously Helen King was spared and he only snuffed out the lives of two yet, in those few seconds of mayhem, he destroyed the lives of many.’ He planned his crime. He went to the store earlier in the day and pretended to shop for a ring. Instead, he was looking it over with an eye to return to commit his crime. When he returned, he fired immediately upon entering, with no warning and no questions asked. His intent was obvious; to take out the victims and steal what he could,” the judge wrote.

Calvin McMillan

McMillan killed James Bryant Martin, a 23-year-old father of two who had just picked up diapers and baby wipes at a Walmart, in Millbrook in 2007.

Authorities said McMillan wanted to steal Martin’s truck.

Prosecutors said McMillan shot Martin as he started the truck, then pulled Martin from the truck and fired more shots into him.

“No juror is in a position to compare this case with other capital cases as they do not have the resources and benefit of the decisions from the appellate courts nor the personal experience received by trying and deciding these types of cases….When compared to other cases with similar facts, a sentence of death is not in any way a disproportionate sentence,” the judge wrote.

Kenneth Eugene Billups

Billups was convicted of killing four people on Dec., 16, 2003: Rafael Salcedo, 15; Enrique Marquez, 16; Wilbur Gomez, 20; and Manuel Perez Nunez, 27.

Billups lured the four victims to a Center Point apartment under the guise of a drug deal. Billups shot all four when they arrived.

The jury unanimously recommended a life sentence for Billups, but the judge in the case sentenced Billups to death, citing prior felonies on Billups’ record and because the slayings were made during a burglary, robbery and kidnapping.

Billups was also convicted of capital murder for the killing of Stevon Lockett during a 2003 burglary, just days after the quadruple homicide.

The jury in the 2003 case recommended death – the same as the judge’s sentence in that case.

Dionne Eatmon

Eatmon was convicted of the murders of Allison Kile and her husband, Rick Kile, during a kidnapping.

Their tied-up bodies were found in their burned car in Brighton in 2004.

Eatmon’s appeal only claimed that the judicial override in his case was unconstitutional and did not give specific reasons why the death penalty ruling should be overturned.

Brandon Mitchell

Mitchell was convicted of capital murder in the slayings of three people during a robbery at the Airport Inn in Birmingham on Thanksgiving Day 2005.

Evidence showed Mitchell shot two of the victims, Kim Olney and Dorothy Smith, while a co-defendant killed the third victim, John Aylesworth.

The judge determined the jury “incorrectly” weighed the factors when recommending a life sentence.

“The State resting during the penalty phase without presenting any aggravating circumstances, but being allowed to reopen their case, may have made the jurors de-emphasize the weight that should have been attributed to evidence presented in support of the aggravating circumstances.”

Justin White

White was convicted of capital murder for the 2006, death of Jasmine Parker, 17, whose mother found her nearly nude with a pair of jeans wrapped around her neck inside their Birmingham apartment.

The judge cited Jasmine’s age and the manner in which she was killed.

White was already serving life without parole for the 2006 murder of UAB student Sirrea Black, 20, who was killed in a similar way, when he was on trial for Jasmine’s slaying.

Melvin Gene Hodges

Hodges was convicted of killing Beth Seaton, his coworker at the Golden Corral in Opelika whose nude body was found on the side of a road in a 1998 robbery.

Hodges forced Seaton to open the safe at the restaurant before she returned to her van with Hodges and a co-conspirator inside.

Sensing “something was going to happen,” Seaton began removing her clothes and offered to have sex with the men.

Hodges hit and choked her before running her over with the van.

The judge cited the brutality of the murder and that Hodges had opportunity to spare Seaton’s life after he got the money.

“The depravity of [Hodges], the callousness of his acts toward the victim … and comparing his acts with similar cases, it is the opinion of this Court that a greater measurement of punishment is proper,” the rationale stated.

Courtney Larrell Lockhart

Lockhart was convicted of killing Auburn University student Lauren Burk in 2008.

Burk was kidnapped from a parking lot. Prosecutors said Lockhart forced her to disrobe and shot her in the back as she tried to escape.

The judge noted Lockhart was suspected in a string of robberies in southeast Alabama and west Georgia that jurors didn’t know about.

“This would have undermined the jury’s decision” for life without parole, the judge said.

Jarrod Taylor

Taylor was convicted in the murders of Sherry Gaston, Bruce Gaston, and Steve Dyas during a robbery at a Mobile car dealership in 1997.

Taylor fatally shot Sherry Gaston, a salesperson, her husband Bruce Gaston, and Dyas. The victims were begging for their lives when Taylor shot them, according to Taylor’s accomplice, who entered a plea deal.

The judge said he doubted the jury was capable of recommending a death sentence.

“Some jurors’ outbursts of emotion after they found the defendant guilty of capital murder indicated that they were overwhelmed by their impending duty to consider the death penalty,” he wrote.

William Bush

Bush was convicted in the shooting death of Montgomery store clerk Larry Dominguez in a 1981 robbery.

The judge in Bush’s case claimed the crime “was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel when compared to other capital offenses.”

Bush’s first trial resulted in the jury recommending death, which the judge sentenced him to, but Bush was granted a new trial following a habeus corpus proceeding.

A second jury convicted him of capital murder, but the decision was reversed because of erroneous jury instructions.

The third jury convicted him and unanimously recommended life without parole.

Shonelle Andre Jackson

Jackson was convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of Lefrick Moore at a Montgomery apartment complex in a 1997 robbery.

“The jury might have been swayed by the defendant’s family members’ pleas for mercy; the jury could have concluded that the codefendants would be treated differently,” the judge’s order stated.

“The jury could have believed that Jackson did not fire the fatal shot; the jury deliberated for only 35 minutes in the penalty phase; Jackson had a long criminal history although he was only 18 years old at the time of the murder; and the court was privy to information and law that was not available to the jury.”

Michael Anthony Sockwell

Sockwell was convicted in the 1988 death of Montgomery County sheriff’s deputy Isaiah Harris, who was shot in the head while driving to work.

Testimony showed Harris’ wife, co-defendant Louise Harris, was having an affair with another co-defendant, Lorenzo McCarter, and that Louise Harris stood to gain a “substantial sum” of insurance money from her husband’s death.

While the jury did not determine Sockwell was the triggerman amid disputed testimony, the judge believed Sockwell was the shooter and cited pecuniary gain as the reason in overriding the jury’s recommendation.

Mario Dion Woodward

Woodward was convicted of shooting and killing Montgomery Police Officer Keith Houts following a 2006 traffic stop.

“Defendant has an extensive criminal record involving firearms and the possession of a large quantity of marijuana,” the judge explained in his decision to override the jury.

“He accumulated an impressive list of disciplinary citations while incarcerated. It is unlikely that the jury would have considered Defendant to be a viable candidate as a role model for his children if the jurors had heard this testimony.

The jury, the judge stated, was told that he was a provider for his children and their mothers.

“Defendant has never paid taxes or filed a tax return. There is no record with the State of his having ever held a legitimate job. How then does he provide for his children? After his release from prison for Manslaughter, he was convicted of possessing almost a pound of marijuana,” the judge stated.

“The Court observed that several of the jurors were visibly distraught. Since the evidence of Defendant’s guilt was overwhelming, the Court surmises that at least some of the jurors were daunted by the task which they knew they would face upon a finding of guilt.”

Robin “Rocky” Myers

Myers was convicted of fatally stabbing his neighbor, Ludie Mae Tucker, in her Decatur home during a 1991 robbery.

See more: Alabama could execute Robin ‘Rocky’ Myers soon. A juror says he’s innocent

The judge said the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances to justify a death sentence, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals stated in its decision upholding Myers’ sentence:

“The trial court considered five nonstatutory mitigating circumstances — the appellant’s love for his children, his reputation for nonviolence, his substance abuse problem, his show of remorse, and his repentant nature.”

Ulysses Charles Sneed

Sneed was convicted in the shooting death of convenience store clerk Clarence Nugene Terry, during a 1993 robbery in Decatur.

The judge said Sneed’s crime was “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel” and said it was “a conscienceless and pitiless crime and was unnecessarily torturous.”

The judge noted that the victim hid behind the counter and rolled himself into a ball as he was shot repeatedly.

“All the while Hardy was shooting, Sneed kept right on working to try and get the cash registers open as though nothing else was happening around him…..Sneed never stopped trying to get the cash registers open….Sneed kicked the victim’s foot out of the way in order to gain easier access to the second cash register.”

Clayton Antwain Shanklin

Shanklin was convicted of capital murder and attempted murder during a 2009 home-invasion robbery in Cordova.

The judge sentenced Shanklin to death because of his long criminal history and the nature and circumstances of his crime.

The judge also alleged the jury was incapable of sentencing Shanklin to death:

“In this case, several jurors were visibly upset upon entering the courtroom to render their verdict at the conclusion of the guilt phase. In addition, at the conclusion of the rendering of the verdict at the guilt phase, there was an outburst among persons in the audience in the courtroom, requiring order to be restored,” the judge wrote.

“The courtroom was ordered vacated and the jury was quickly sequestered in the jury room.

Jurors worried that the penalty phase would be made public.

“There was a look of concern and consternation on the faces of several of the jurors. ․ [I]t is very likely these jurors, although very cooperative, diligent, and attentive throughout the trial, were unable to carry out their sworn legal obligation during sentencing,” the judge wrote in the sentencing order.”

Earl Jerome McGahee

McGahee was convicted of the 1985 killings of his ex-wife, Connie Brown, and Cassandra Lee, a nursing student at Wallace Community College, in Selma.

Alabama’s Court of Criminal Appeals overturned McGahee’s death sentence based on improper introduction of victim impact testimony during the sentencing phase of his trial. But the court denied McGahee’s claims under Batson vs. Kentucky, a 1986 Supreme Court decision that excluding jurors based on race violates the equal protection guarantees of the 14th Amendment.

After a second sentencing hearing, a new jury returned a 10-2 verdict for life imprisonment with no parole. The trial judge rejected the jury verdict and sentenced McGahee to death, and the sentence was upheld on direct appeal.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found Alabama violated McGahee’s 14th Amendment rights in 2009 and granted him a new trial. That trial is pending.