Ex Parte Neal

In April 1990, in the Baldwin Circuit Court, John Lionel Neal was convicted by a jury of the capital murder of Wilma Underwood, a murder committed during the course of a burglary. See §13A-5-40(a)(4), Ala. Code 1995. He was sentenced to death. The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction, holding that the State had violated the principles of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), during its use of peremptory strikes against potential jurors. See Neal v. State, 612 So.2d 1347 (Ala. Crim App. 1992). After a second trial, in March 1994, Neal was again convicted of capital murder and,…