On October 3, 2003, the Alabama Supreme Court unanimously reversed Phillip Tomlin’s death sentence and ordered him resentenced to life in prison without parole, marking the Court’s first ruling to create a standard of review for judicial override in the state. Tomlin had been on death row for more than 25 years despite the fact that four juries have recommended that he receive a life sentence for his alleged role in a Mobile, Alabama, revenge killing. In each of those cases, the trial judge overrode the jury to impose a death sentence because Tomlin’s co-defendant, John Daniels, was sent to death row. In its decision, the Court noted, “It would be inconsistent to hold that Daniels’s sentence could properly be used to undermine the jury’s recommendation of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.” The Court’s opinion also noted an earlier Alabama Supreme Court ruling that concluded that even a 10-2 jury recommendation should be given strong consideration by the sentencing judge. Tomlin was represented by his pro-bono attorney, University of Chicago law professor Bernard Harcourt. Mobile Register, October 4, 2003, and Attorney Press Release, October 7, 2003). See Life Without Parole.