State Rep. Chip Brown (R-Hollinger’s Island) filed a bill on Wednesday that would further strengthen Alabama’s Aniah’s Law by requiring prosecutors to seek bail denial and mandating pretrial detention hearings in certain Class A felony cases.
Brown’s proposal, HB126, would require district attorneys to request that judges deny bail when a defendant is charged with a Class A felony resulting in death.
Current law allows prosecutors to make that request, but does not require it. When state legislators return to Montgomery for the 2026 legislative session next week, they will consider making that a non-negotiable.
“Since its passage by voters in a 2022 referendum election, Aniah’s Law has brought a larger measure of justice to victims of violent crimes, and it has helped ensure that those who commit those crimes feel the full weight of punishment,” Brown said.
“Time and experience have since shown us that we can make the law even stronger and demand an even higher level of accountability from those among us who take the life of another.”
In addition to the mandatory bail denial request, the legislation would prohibit judges from waiving pretrial detention hearings in Class A felony cases involving a death. Defendants accused of such crimes would be held without bail until a detention hearing is conducted.
Class A felonies in Alabama include crimes such as murder, kidnapping, arson, and first-degree rape, robbery, or burglary.
Aniah’s Law was approved by Alabama voters in 2022 as a constitutional amendment allowing judges to deny bail to individuals charged with violent crimes when they are deemed a threat to public safety.
The law is named after 19-year-old college student Aniah Blanchard, who prosecutors allege was killed in 2019 by Ibraheed Yazeed after he had previously been released on bond for multiple violent offenses.
Yazeed, who faces trial on March 2, 2026, had been granted bail despite more than a dozen prior arrests, including drug and robbery charges.
Sherri Blevins is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at [email protected].
