Minnifield v. State

Willie Minnifield was indicted for and convicted of sodomy in the first degree, pursuant to § 13A-6-63, Code of Alabama 1975, and sentenced under the Habitual Felony Offender Act to life imprisonment without parole.

The evidence is undisputed that on April 19, 1980, an act of sodomy, as defined in §§ 13A-6-63 and § 13A-6-60 (2), Code of Alabama 1975, was committed on a three-year-old boy in an abandoned house near his grandmother's home. The boy had been missing for several hours and was found after dark in the abandoned home as a result of a police search of the neighborhood.

The police…