William Joseph Baxley II (born June 27, 1941), is an American Democratic politician and attorney from Dothan, Alabama.

Baxley, incorrectly, was perceived as the candidate closer politically to George Wallace, an impression he did not dispute throughout the election contest.

During his time as state attorney general, Baxley aggressively prosecuted industrial polluters, strip miners, and corrupt elected officials.

"[2][3][4] As Alabama Attorney General, Baxley became known in 1977 for his successful prosecution of Robert Chambliss, a member of a splinter group of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), in the cold case of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham on Sunday, September 15, 1963.

The dynamite blast, which occurred during the time of nonviolent demonstrations in the Birmingham campaign for integration and voting rights – led by Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, Fred Shuttlesworth and others – resulted in the deaths of four young girls and injuries of 14 to 22 others.

"[citation needed] Baxley confirmed that he had talked to Gary Thomas Rowe,[5] an FBI paid informant and agent provocateur within the KKK.

In the early 21st century, when two more suspected conspirators were tried, Baxley was dismayed to learn that the FBI had secretly obtained audio tapes in which defendants had implicated themselves, which had never been offered to him for his own prosecution.

Baxley lost the Democratic primary to political newcomer Fob James, who defeated Republican nominee Guy Hunt of Cullman.

In 1986, the Democratic primary for the gubernatorial race resulted in then Attorney General Charles Graddick of Mobile in a runoff with Baxley, then the lieutenant governor.

Alabama voters were thus used to a de facto open primary system, and protested by throwing their support to Guy Hunt, the GOP nominee.

However, buoyed by support from Democrats breaking ranks (mostly among Graddick's primary voters), Hunt defeated Baxley by a large margin, giving Alabama its first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

"[6] Baxley wrote that in his "56-year career as an Alabama lawyer, only twice have I discovered that an innocent man was sentenced to die," the last survivor of the Scottsboro Boys, and Toforest Johnson.