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Full-Text Articles in Law

Science, Public Bioethics, And The Problem Of Integration, O. Carter Snead Aug 2016

Science, Public Bioethics, And The Problem Of Integration, O. Carter Snead

O. Carter Snead

Public bioethics — the governance of science, medicine, and biotechnology in the name of ethical goods — is an emerging area of American law. The field uniquely combines scientific knowledge, moral reasoning, and prudential judgments about democratic decision making. It has captured the attention of officials in every branch of government, as well as the American public itself. Public questions (such as those relating to the law of abortion, the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, and the regulation of end-of-life decision making) continue to roil the public square. This Article examines the question of how scientific methods and …


Blind Justice, Andrea Lyon Mar 2015

Blind Justice, Andrea Lyon

Andrea D. Lyon

No abstract provided.


Undue Burden, Andrea Lyon Mar 2015

Undue Burden, Andrea Lyon

Andrea D. Lyon

No abstract provided.


Dying To Win, Andrea Lyon Mar 2015

Dying To Win, Andrea Lyon

Andrea D. Lyon

No abstract provided.


The Aba Guidelines And The Norms Of Capital Defense Representation, Russell Stetler, W. Bradley Wendel Feb 2015

The Aba Guidelines And The Norms Of Capital Defense Representation, Russell Stetler, W. Bradley Wendel

W. Bradley Wendel

The ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases (“Guidelines”), as revised in 2003, continue to stand as the single most authoritative summary of the prevailing professional norms in the realm of capital defense practice. Hundreds of court opinions have cited the Guidelines. They have been particularly useful in helping courts to assess the investigation and presentation of mitigating evidence in death penalty cases. This Article will discuss how these Guidelines have come to reflect prevailing professional norms in this critical area of capital defense practice and how that practice has developed in the …


The Dilemmas Of Excessive Sentencing: Death May Be Different But How Different?, Michael Meltsner Dec 2013

The Dilemmas Of Excessive Sentencing: Death May Be Different But How Different?, Michael Meltsner

Michael Meltsner

No abstract provided.


Maryland Repeals The Death Penalty, But Leaves Five On Death Row: Should The State That Condemned An Innocent Man To Die Commute All Five Death Sentences?, Meredith Pendergrass Jul 2013

Maryland Repeals The Death Penalty, But Leaves Five On Death Row: Should The State That Condemned An Innocent Man To Die Commute All Five Death Sentences?, Meredith Pendergrass

Meredith Pendergrass

No abstract provided.


Sentencing The Mentally Retarded To Death: An Eighth Amendment Analysis, John H. Blume, David Bruck Jan 2013

Sentencing The Mentally Retarded To Death: An Eighth Amendment Analysis, John H. Blume, David Bruck

David I. Bruck

Today, on death rows across the United States, sit a number of men with the minds of children. These people are mentally retarded. Typical of these individuals is Limmie Arthur, who currently is imprisoned at Central Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina. Although Arthur is twenty-eight years old, all the mental health professionals who have evaluated him, including employees of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, agree he has the mental capacity of approximately a 10-year-old child. Arthur was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a neighbor. At his first trial, his court appointed attorneys did not …


Forgetting Furman: Arbitrary Death Penalty Schemes Across The Nation, Sarah A. Mourer Dec 2012

Forgetting Furman: Arbitrary Death Penalty Schemes Across The Nation, Sarah A. Mourer

Sarah Mourer

The legislature has forgotten the lessons taught by Furman v. Georgia and today, the “untrammeled discretion” once held by juries is now held by the judiciary. Many death penalty sentencing procedures are unconstitutional, in violation of both the Sixth and Eighth Amendments, because the judge alone is authorized to sentence the defendant to life or death despite being uninformed of the jury’s factual findings. Pursuant to the Sixth Amendment as articulated in Ring v. Arizona, the factual findings upon which a death sentence rests must be found by the jury, and only the jury. Nevertheless, many jurisdictions permit the judge …


Repudiating The Narrowing Rule In Capital Sentencing, Scott W. Howe Dec 2011

Repudiating The Narrowing Rule In Capital Sentencing, Scott W. Howe

Scott W. Howe

This Article proposes a modest reform of Eighth Amendment law governing capital sentencing to spur major reform in the understanding of the function of the doctrine. The article urges that the Supreme Court should renounce a largely empty mandate known as the “narrowing” rule and the rhetoric of equality that has accompanied it. By doing so, the Court could speak more truthfully about the important but more limited function that its capital-sentencing doctrine actually pursues, which is to ensure that no person receives the death penalty who does not deserve it. The Court could also speak more candidly than it …


Promulgating Proportionality, William W. Berry Iii Dec 2010

Promulgating Proportionality, William W. Berry Iii

William W Berry III

Two lines of cases have dominated the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment death penalty jurisprudence: the Furman-Gregg line of cases emphasizes the need to adopt rules to eliminate the arbitrariness inherent in unguided capital sentencing by juries, while the Woodson-Lockett line of cases emphasizes the opposite concern - the need for juries to make individualized sentencing determinations - highlighting the inadequacy of rules. At first glance, these competing aims create some internal tension, if not outright conflict. In his concurrence in Walton v. Arizona, Justice Scalia argued that this conflict was irreconcilable: “[t]he latter requirement [individualized factual determinations] quite obviously destroys …


Evolving Away From Evolving Standards Of Decency, John F. Stinneford Dec 2009

Evolving Away From Evolving Standards Of Decency, John F. Stinneford

John F. Stinneford

No abstract provided.