Subsequently, a grand jury in Alabama, his state of residence, indicted him for the crime of murder during a kidnapping, and he entered a plea of "autrefois convict and former jeopardy under the Alabama and United States Constitutions," by which he stated that he was not eligible to be punished in Alabama because a Georgia court had already convicted and sentenced him for the same crime, and that the crime had, in fact, not taken place in Alabama.Heath, 474 U.S. at 85. The prosecutor argued, however, that because the defendant's wife had been kidnapped in Alabama, the murder "may be punished" there. On 12 January 1983, a jury in the Alabama court convicted Heath of "murder during a kidnapping in the first degree," a capital offense, He was sentenced to death, and the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed this decision on direct appeal.Heath v. State, 455 So. 2d 898 (Ala. Crim. App. 1983). The Alabama Supreme Court, after granting certiorari, affirmed the decision of the lower court as well.Ex parte Heath, 455 So.2d 905 (Ala. 1984).
