With Election Day approaching, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson has joined Governor Kay Ivey and a group of mayors from across Alabama in urging voters to support Amendment 1, the proposed state constitutional amendment widely known as Aniah’s Law.
The measure is named for Aniah Blanchard, the 19-year-old college student kidnapped and killed in 2019. State legislators first floated similar legislation in 2018, but the effort gained momentum — and its name — after her death. The proposal cleared both chambers of the Alabama Legislature without opposition before landing on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Aniah’s Law would give judges broader authority to deny bond to people charged with violent offenses such as kidnapping and rape, aiming to keep accused violent offenders off the streets while they await trial.
Supporters argue the change is a matter of public safety. “There’s nothing that I know that can be more impactful than passing Amendment 1 because you’re actually changing the State Constitution,” Stimpson said, adding that naming the amendment for Blanchard helps voters connect the issue to a preventable tragedy. Governor Ivey urged Alabamians to vote yes so that no family endures what she called a preventable tragedy. Aniah’s mother, Angela Harris, has said her daughter’s name on the amendment reflects lives it could save.
Opponents, including several civil rights organizations, warn that the measure erodes long-standing bail protections. Jerome Dees, Alabama policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, called the amendment a dramatic departure from centuries of state constitutional law, noting that it sets no limit on how long someone could be held before trial despite speedy-trial guarantees under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Advocates for fair bond practices also say broader detention will worsen jail overcrowding.
Voting takes place Tuesday, Nov. 8 at Mobile County’s 80 precincts.