Judith A. Neelley v. Clifford Walker

The Alabama Parole Board denied Judith Neelley’s parole eligibility in 2014 based on a law passed in 2003. The question in this case- is: did Neelley’s cause of action related to her parole denial accrue in 2003 or 2014. In this specific circumstance, we hold that Neelley’s cause of action accrued in 2014.

I

In 1983, a jury convicted Judith Neelley of murder and recommended life imprisonment without parole. Instead, the trial judge sentenced Neelley to death. In 1999, Alabama Governor Forrest James commuted her sentence to life imprisonment. As a result, pursuant to then existing Alabama law…