Alabama is the only state where judges have routinely overridden jury verdicts of life to impose capital punishment.

Since 1976, Alabama judges have overridden jury verdicts 112 times. Judges have authority to override life or death verdicts, but 91% of overrides have overruled jury verdicts of life to impose the death penalty.

Judge override is a significant contributor to Alabama’s high death sentencing rate. Nearly 20% of the people currently on death row were sentenced to death through judicial override.

https://eji.org/reports/judge-override/