Alabama death row inmate gets prison records

Published 11:42 pm Monday, July 19, 2010

MONTGOMERY (AP) — Alabama prison officials turned over records for death row inmate Michael Jeffrey Land on Monday after lawyers went to court saying the information could help stop his scheduled August execution.

The American Civil Liberties Union had filed a complaint in federal court in Montgomery saying prison officials had refused to release information showing Land has been “an exemplary inmate.” They said the documents could be used in Land’s petition to Alabama Gov. Bob Riley seeking clemency.

Alabama prison spokesman Brian Corbett said corrections officials delivered the records to Land’s attorneys Monday afternoon.

Along with the inmate files, Department of Corrections attorney Scott Rouse said in a letter to Land’s attorneys that all documents in Land’s file were included in the release.

Rouse said in the letter that corrections officials were not conceding that Land had a right to the documents or that disclosure was required by state law. Rouse asked Land’s attorneys to dismiss the lawsuit.

Land was convicted in the May 1992 killing of 30-year-old Candace Brown. She had been missing for several days when hikers found her body in an abandoned limestone quarry on Birmingham’s Ruffner Mountain.

ACLU attorney Allison Neal confirmed the files were turned over to attorneys for Land on Monday afternoon.

Neal said she would wait to decide on whether to dismiss the lawsuit until Land’s attorneys had a chance to review the file.