Steve Marshall announces a three-count capital murder indictment of Ibraheem Yazeed for the slaying of Aniah Blanchard
Attorney General Steve Marshall announced the indictment of Ibraheem Yazeed on three counts of capital murder for the death of Aniah Haley Blanchard. Blanchard was a college student studying at Southern Union. Aniah was reported missing in Auburn on October 24, 2019, and her body was discovered on November 25, 2019, in a wooded area in Macon County. Yazeed, age 32, of Montgomery, was served the indictment Tuesday in the Lee County jail, where he is currently being held without bond. Attorney General Marshall’s office presented evidence to a Macon County grand jury on November 4, 2022, resulting in Yazeed’s indictment on three counts of capital murder on Monday. The indictment charges Yazeed with one count of capital murder during a kidnapping in the first degree, one count of capital murder during robbery in the first degree, and one count of capital murder involving a victim in a vehicle. The indictment charges Yazeed with intentionally causing the death of Blanchard by shooting her with a gun during the course of abducting her and robbing her of a vehicle and cell phone. The indictment also charges Yazeed intentionally caused Blanchard’s death while she was inside her vehicle, a 2017 Honda CR-V. If convicted, Yazeed could face the death penalty or a sentence of life imprisonment without parole for each of the three charges of capital murder. Yazeed had already been charged with kidnapping, attempted murder, and robbery but was out on bond awaiting trial when he allegedly abducted and murdered Blanchard. Authorities allege that Blanchard was not the first person that Yazeed has murdered. Due to the horrible crime, the voters of Alabama recently ratified a constitutional amendment allowing district attorneys to request that judges deny bail for dangerous villains. Marshall campaigned hard for the ratification of Amendment One – which was named Aniah’s Law in memory of Blanchard. The Blanchard family was instrumental in the campaign to pass the Amendment to the Alabama Constitution of 1901. The case is being prosecuted by Attorney General Marshall’s Criminal Trials Division. Marshall thanked local and state law enforcement agencies, especially the Auburn Police Department, Montgomery Police Department, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Lee and Macon County Sheriff’s Offices, for their expert work in investigating this case, as well as both the Lee and Macon County District Attorneys’ Offices. Yazeed has merely been indicted. He will still have his day in court and the opportunity to present a defense. Under the American justice system, everyone is assumed to be innocent until proven guilty before a jury of their peers. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
J. Pepper Bryars: Alabama’s problem with violent suspects killing people while out on bail
Americans have recently begun waking up to the disastrous consequences of bail reform efforts that are being led by progressive district attorneys across the nation. The case of Darrel E. Brooks in Wisconsin is just the latest, if not most tragic, example. He ran over his girlfriend with a car in early November, but despite the seriousness of the charge and his long wrap sheet, Brooks was let out on a mere $1,000 bail. Two weeks later, he drove through the Christmas parade in Waukesha, seriously injuring dozens of people and killing six, including four grandmothers and an 8-year-old boy. While the enormity of the Waukesha tragedy is unusual, the process that contributed to it isn’t. Courts often let suspects charged with violent crimes out with little to no bail while their cases work through the slow gears of the criminal justice system, sometimes releasing known predators like Brooks to prey upon our communities for months, maybe even years before they face justice. But are things like this happening in Alabama? A quick search of the internet just turned up the following: Mobile: Christin Brionna Edwards was charged with four counts of attempted murder last month while being out on bail on a 2019 murder charge. The district attorney said the process is a “revolving door.” Montgomery: Jeremie Rashad Wright was charged with murder last month while he was already out on bail after being charged with another murder committed in 2018. Tuscaloosa: Deramus Devalle Harris was charged with murder last month while out on $75,000 bail from another murder charge in 2020. Birmingham: Anthony Needham shot his girlfriend in the head in 2018 and was charged with murder. He was let out of jail two days later on $100,000 bail, and several months later he shot and killed a man during a robbery. Huntsville: Charles Price Preston was charged with murder last year after having already been arrested 17 times for various other crimes, including assault, rape, and robbery. And the list goes on and on and on and on … So, yes, it is happening here in Alabama. And often. Some may recall the kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard of Homewood in October 2019. Her alleged killer, 29-year old Ibraheem Yazeed of Montgomery, was well-known to police. He was out on bail after being charged earlier in the year with robbery, kidnapping, and attempted murder. Yazeed and three others allegedly robbed and beat two men in a Montgomery hotel, including a 77-year-old man who was left near death. Yazeed was also accused in 2012 with attempting to kill two police officers with his car, and he was arrested in 2017 for aggravated battery on another police officer. Prosecutors say Yazeed — still walking free after all of that — kidnapped Blanchard from an Auburn gas station, shot her in the head, and dumped her body in a wooded area of Macon County. Prosecutors and victim advocates say that current Alabama law prevented the courts from holding Yazeed without bail for his earlier charges because none of them were capital crimes or met others standards and that Aniah’s killing was a wake-up call. The governor signed a bill named “Aniah’s Law” earlier this year that would change that, adding murder, kidnapping, rape, assault, and other violent crimes to the list of charges that could lead to a defendant being denied bail. Voters will decide if Aniah’s Law becomes part of the state’s constitution in November 2022. Aside from Aniah’s Law, prosecutors are seeking to increase the maximum amount of bail for murder, which is currently set by the State Supreme Court along the following lines: Capital felony: $50,000-no bail allowed Murder: $15,000-$150,000 Drug manufacturing and trafficking: $5,000-$1.5 million. So, as you can see, someone charged with dealing drugs can be held for 15-times the amount of bail than someone charged with killing another human being. A rules committee of the Alabama State Supreme Court recently approved a motion from Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey to increase bail for murder to $1.5 million, after having already increased the maximum from $75,000 to $150,000 in 2014. We mustn’t simply give the state a blank check, however. It’s a safe bet that the government will abuse whatever additional power the people grant, without vigilant oversight. As Benjamin Franklin warned, “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” We deserve both. Aniah and all of the other victims deserved both. And with the enactment of Aniah’s Law, the increase of bail for murder, and the strength and will to ensure the state doesn’t abuse its authority, we just might be able to have it. (J. Pepper Bryars is a conservative opinion writer from Mobile who lives in Hunstville. Readers can find him at https://jpepper.substack.com).
