Montgomery, AL – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that federal courts have dismissed long-standing legal challenges filed by death-row inmates James Ben Brownfield and Kerry M. Spencer, bringing an end to years of litigation surrounding their convictions.
Both cases had been pending in federal court for extended periods, with each inmate seeking to overturn their convictions and death sentences through petitions filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. In early March 2026, Marshall petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to compel the district courts to issue rulings in both cases.
Following that request, the courts issued decisions denying and dismissing the claims brought by both inmates.
“After years of delays, these rulings bring us one step closer to justice for six lives violently taken. My office exists for moments like this, to ensure the full force of the law is carried out, no matter the obstacles,” Marshall said in a statement.
James Ben Brownfield was convicted of three counts of capital murder in connection with the 2001 killings of his sister, Brenda McCutchin, her husband Latham McCutchin, and her three-year-old grandson, Joshua Hodges, in Jackson County. A jury recommended a death sentence following his conviction. Brownfield filed his federal petition in 2019. On March 3, 2026, the Attorney General’s Office sought action from the Eleventh Circuit, and on March 16, 2026, the court dismissed his claims.
Kerry M. Spencer was sentenced to death for the 2004 killings of three Birmingham police officers—Carlos Owen, Harley A. Chisolm III, and Charles R. Bennett—and for the attempted murder of Officer Michael Collins. Spencer filed his federal petition in 2016. After the Attorney General’s March 3, 2026 request, the court dismissed his claims on April 1, 2026.
Marshall also credited the work of his office’s Capital Litigation Division for its role in defending the state’s convictions and sentences throughout the extended legal proceedings.
