Ex Parte Bridges

The petitioner, Rickey Troy Bridges, filed this petition for a writ of mandamus directing Judge Joseph S. Johnston to transfer to the presiding judge of the Mobile Circuit Court Bridges's motion to reconsider his sentence. For the reasons indicated, we are treating Bridges's petition as one for a writ of prohibition.

In 1989, Bridges was convicted of robbery in the first degree and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole under the Habitual Felony Offender Act, § 13A-5-9, Ala. Code 1975 ("the HFOA"). Judge Robert L. Byrd, Jr., conducted the sentencing hearing in…