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SUPREME COURT OF ALABAMA
OCTOBER TERM, 2011-2012 _________________________ 1101129 _________________________ Ex parte State of Alabama PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS (In re: Ex parte Jeremy B. Jones (In re: State of Alabama v. Jeremy B. Jones)) (Mobile Circuit Court, CC-05-1601.60; Court of Criminal Appeals, CR-10-0938) WOODALL, Justice.

1101129 The State of Alabama petitions this Court for a writ of mandamus directing the Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate its order granting a mandamus petition filed by Jeremy B. Jones and directing Mobile Circuit Judge Charles A. Graddick to recuse himself from presiding over Jones's postconviction

proceedings.

We grant the petition and issue the writ. I. Factual and Procedural Background

In October 2005, Judge Graddick presided over a trial in which Jones was convicted on four counts of capital murder and was sentenced to death. The jury was sequestered throughout After his conviction

the trial, which lasted several days.

and sentence were affirmed on appeal, Jones v. State, 43 So. 3d 1258 (Ala. Crim. App. 2007), Jones filed a petition for postconviction relief pursuant to Rule 32, Ala. R. Crim. P. In his Rule 32 petition, Jones alleged, in pertinent part, that T.E., who served as a juror at his trial, was unfit to serve on the jury on account of alcohol dependence and that T.E. had failed to answer truthfully certain questions on voir dire regarding his alcohol dependence. According to Jones,

posttrial interviews revealed (1) that T.E. had told Judge Graddick during Jones's trial that he was an alcoholic, (2)

2

1101129 that T.E. had received permission from Judge Graddick to drink alcohol during sequestration, and (3) that Judge Graddick did not inform Jones's counsel that T.E. had requested such

permission and that Judge Graddick had granted it. petition alleged juror misconduct, as well as

Jones's juror

incompetence. In conjunction with his Rule 32 petition, Jones filed a "motion to recuse Judge Graddick from presiding over his Rule 32 proceeding," asserting as grounds Ala. Code 1975,

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