Gates v. State

The appellant, William Henry Gates, appeals from the denial of his motion to reconsider his sentence, filed pursuant to § 13A-5-9.1, Ala. Code 1975. Gates was convicted of robbery in the first degree on June 3, 1982, and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, as a habitual offender with five prior felony convictions.

Gates's motion for sentence reconsideration was initially granted by the trial court on March 15, 2005, and his sentence was modified to life imprisonment, with credit given for all time already served. In his order, Judge John B. Bush, presiding judge of the 19th…