The Alabama House passed a bill Tuesday that proponents say will cut down on the time that death row inmates can appeal their sentence.

The Fair Justice Act, which passed the Alabama Senate last month, was approved by the House in a 74-26 vote, streamlines the appeals process by allowing death row inmates to exercise their two appeals concurrently instead of consecutively. That would occur by having the inmates be assigned two appellate teams working simultaneously.

The bill has to go back to the Senate after the House amended the bill.

Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, who is supporting the bill in the House, said the legislation could cut the time for inmates to exhaust their appeals from 20 years to 10 years. He noted that those on death row would not be losing any rights under the bill.

"Family members of capital murder victims often condemn the length of time it takes for justice to be served," he said.

The bill's passage was lauded by State Attorney General Steve Marshall.

"I appreciate Rep. Lynn Greer's effort in guiding the Fair Justice Act through the House. There is no doubt that Alabama's system for reviewing capital cases is inefficient and in need of repair. The average death row inmate appeal time is over 15 years and rising," Marshall said in a statement. "Each year that these appeals drag on, the general public is further removed from and even desensitized to the horrendous crimes that led to the sentences of every individual on death row. But, for the families of victims, the pain is not numbed with the passing of years. The endless appeals process reopens their wounds again and again."

The Alabama Bar Association urged the House not to pass the bill, saying the legislation would "ironically likely increase the overall amount of time that it takes to litigate a capital post-conviction case."

The association, which has no position on the death penalty, cautioned that the bill prevents death row inmates from changing their petitions after the deadline and mandates that courts waive later changes.

"This seriously harms individuals whose first appeals lawyers failed to investigate or otherwise provided inadequate representation. These waived claims will still necessitate subsequent review by state and federal judges who will need to evaluate whether waiver was caused by ineffective counsel and who could send the cases back to lower state courts for additional review. This could have the unintended consequence of adding court proceedings to evaluate whether claims filed after the short initial deadline still deserve review on their merits," the ABA said in a letter dated Friday to Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh and House Speaker Mac McCutcheon.

"Thus, this legislation could result in a slower overall process with more delays that further burden Alabama's courts." "Furthermore, the lack of detailed, meaningful qualification standards in the Fair Justice Act only increases the chances of this delay being a regular occurrence in Alabama cases."

Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, echoed one of the ABA's reasons urging a no vote: That the bill does not give enough time for falsely imprisoned death row inmates to prove their innocence.

"I would hate to rush the process," he said, adding that the bill is just a "concept" unless it adds funding for forensics and the criminal justice system.

Updated at 4:34 p.m. to add comments from Steve Marshall and John Knight.