Law Commons^™

Review Essay: Feminism, Lawyering, And Death Row, Joan W. Howarth

Scholarly Works

Representing men on death row is confounding, but not without reward. This lawyering work has taught me at least two lessons, the subjects of this essay. First, capital punishment--our attempt to use legal procedures to kill people fairly--is a feminist issue, or should be. Second, death row representation is too big a job for lawyers; we need to recruit poets. To develop these ideas, and perhaps to convince you without requiring you to undertake the same path to these conclusions, I am appropriating novelist Beverly Lowry's stunning new book, Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir. Crossed Over is the story …

"Death Is Different" And Other Twists Of Fate, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Welsh White's book, The Death Penalty in the Nineties, reviews those United States Supreme Court decisions and developments that have occurred in the four years since the publication of his earlier book, The Death Penalty in the Eighties. In The Nineties, White claims that these recent developments, which have significantly limited capital defendants' habeas corpus appeals, are likely to increase both the rate and the geographical reach of executions which, in the past, have occurred mostly in the South. After discussing some of the analytical and methodological shortcomings of The Nineties, this review will focus on The Nineties' most …

The Breath Of The Unfee'd Lawyer: Statutory Fee Limitations And Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel In Capital Litigation, Albert L. Vreeland Ii

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that fee limitations deprive indigent defendants of their right to effective assistance of counsel. Part I of this Note reviews state court decisions that address Sixth Amendment challenges to fee limitations, yet fail to address the broader concerns about the appointed counsel system. Part II considers the inherent disincentives and burdens fee limitations impose on attorneys and suggests that the limits threaten the indigent accused's right to effective assistance of counsel. A comparison of the fee limitations and the time required to prepare and try a capital case reveals the gross inadequacy of statutory fee provisions. In …

To Tell What We Know Or Wait For Godot?, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

Articles

Professor Elliott raises two questions about the American Psychological Association's practice of submitting amicus briefs to the courts. First, are our data sufficiently valid, consistent, and generalizable to be applicable to the real world issues? Second, are amicus briefs adequate to communicate scientific findings? The first of these is not a general question, but must be addressed anew each time the Association considers a new issue. An evaluation of the quality and sufficiency of scientific knowledge about racial discrimination, for example, tells us nothing at all about the quality and sufficiency of scientific knowledge about sexual abuse. "Are the data …

Use Of The "Zola Plea" In New Jersey Capital Prosecutions, J Thomas Sullivan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Habeas Corpus Committee - Correspondence, Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Habeas Corpus Committee

No abstract provided.

On The Perils Of Line-Drawing: Juveniles And The Death Penalty, Joseph L. Hoffmann

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

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

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

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 …

Habeas Corpus Committee - Correspondence, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Habeas Corpus Committee

No abstract provided.

Unpleasant Facts: The Supreme Court's Response To Empirical Research On Capital Punishment, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

Book Chapters

Slowly at first, and then with accelerating frequency, the courts have begun to examine, consider, and sometimes even require empirical data. From 1960 to 1981, for example, use of the terms "statistics" and "statistical" in Federal District and Circuit Court opinions increased by almost 15 times.1 Of course, citation rates indicate only that a topic is considered worthy of mention, not that it is taken seriously, or even understood. Nonetheless, in a number of areas, such as jury composition and employment discrimination, the courts have come to rely on empirical data as a matter of course.

In the last 25 …

Constitutional Law—Criminal Procedure—Eighth Amendment Bars Execution Of The Insane, Jonathan Taylor

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Remedies To The Dilemma Of Death-Qualified Juries, Robert M. Berry

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Black Innocence And The White Jury, Sheri Johnson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Racial prejudice has come under increasingly close scrutiny during the past thirty years, yet its influence on the decisionmaking of criminal juries remains largely hidden from judicial and critical examination. In this Article, Professor Johnson takes a close look at this neglected area. She first sets forth a large body of social science research that reveals a widespread tendency among whites to convict black defendants in instances in which white defendants would be acquitted. Next, she argues that none of the existing techniques for eliminating the influence of racial bias on criminal trials adequately protects minority-race defendants. She contends that …

Capital Juries And The Fair Cross-Section Requirement: Modern Constitutional Reasoning In Jury Selection, John Coleman Ayers

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Prosecutorial Peremptory Challenge Practices In Capital Cases: An Empirical Study And A Constitutional Analysis, Bruce J. Winick

Michigan Law Review

As presently construed, the Constitution does not prohibit the death penalty. The states and the federal government may punish the commission of certain crimes with death, so long as the extreme penalty is not imposed on a mandatory basis and so long as the procedures used in imposing a death sentence meet constitutional scrutiny.

A demonstration that the prosecutor used the peremptory challenge in the manner described in a single case probably would be insufficient to support a constitutional challenge in the federal courts and in the vast majority of state courts. In these courts a prosecutor's use of the …

Death-Qualification And The Fireside Induction, Robert M. Berry

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Capital Punishment In Ohio: Aggravating Circumstances, Elaine C. Hilliard

Cleveland State Law Review

The state of Ohio enacted a new death penalty statute which became effective October 19, 1981. As of January 18, 1983, eighty-three defendants had been indicted under the new statute. It is, therefore, both necessary and timely to evaluate Ohio's statutory delineation of who may die and its effect for compliance with constitutional mandates. This Note sets forth the hypotheses and supporting legal authority for analyzing Ohio's statutory aggravating circumstances individually and in the aggregate on equal protection and procedural due process grounds.

Reflections On Felony-Murder, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

Of all the reforms proposed by the Model Penal Code, perhaps none has been less influential than the Model Code's recommendation on the perennial problem of felony-murder. As found in our nineteenth-century criminal codes, the rule has several variations. The basic scheme is to hold the accused liable for murder if the killing is connected in any way with the attempt to commit a felony or the flight from the scene of a felony. It does not matter whether the accused or an accomplice causes the death. Nor does it matter whether the killing occurs accidentally and non-negligently. According to …

Desert And Deterrence: An Evaluation Of The Moral Bases For Capital Punishment, Richard O. Lempert

Book Chapters

Because the death penalty was so influential in its development, the law of homicide cannot be thoroughly understood without considering the subject of capital punishment. The question of whether or not the State is justified in taking an offender's life has for centuries been fraught with controversy. Moreover, the law on the subject has become enormously complicated as the courts have attempted to assure that the death penalty is fairly administered.

A Step Toward Uniformity: Review Of Life Sentences In Capital Cases, Ron Bergwerk

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Some Legislative History And Comments On Ohio's New Criminal Code , Harry J. Lehman, Alan E. Norris

Cleveland State Law Review

Having briefly outlined the history of the formal development of the Act, it is the purpose of this Article to discuss in narrative form the legislative process on certain key provisions which were the subject of much debate and disagreement. These areas of disagreement include murder and felony penalties, especially minimum sentences; capital punishment to conform to the U.S. Supreme Court's Furman decision as well as other changes; parole eligibility for those serving life sentences for a capital offense; early release on parole, also known as shock parole; eligibility for probation; definition of reasonable doubt and jury instructions on reasonable …

Societal Concepts Of Criminal Liability For Homicide In Medieval England, Thomas A. Green

Articles

THE early history of English criminal law lies hidden behind the laconic formulas of the rolls and law books. The rules of the law, as expounded by the judges, have been the subject of many studies; but their practical application in the courts, where the jury of the community was the final and unbridled arbiter, remains a mystery: in short, we know little of the social mores regarding crime and crimi- nals. This study represents an attempt to delineate one major aspect of these societal attitudes. Its thesis is that from late Anglo-Saxon times to the end of the middle …

Capital Punishment: A Model For Reform, Charles E. Glasscock

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of Capital Punishment, R. Rees Kinney

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Facts And Figures Concerning Executions In California, 1938-1962, Geroge E. Danielson

California Assembly

The purpose of this report is to present as much statistical material as is now available relating to those persons who have suffered the death penalty in California.

This study is prompted by the current debate on whether the California Legislature should enact a moratorium on the death penalty during the 1963 General Session. In making their judgments on that grave question the members of the Legislature need to, consider and evaluate all available factual information. Unfortunately we have observed that, except for the moral question, the discussion on all sides has been noted chiefly for an abundance of undocumented …

Capital Punishment Reconsidered, William O. Reichert

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

People V. Riser [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

In a capital murder prosecution, a trial court's grant of the prosecution's challenge to a juror, who stated that in no event would he vote for the death penalty, was not error.

Caritativo V. Teets [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

Writ of mandate would not issue to compel warden to institute proceedings to determine present sanity of defendant awaiting execution of death penalty after warden determined that there was not good reason to believe defendant was presently insane.

People V. Gilliam [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

Defendant's conviction of first degree murder and sentence of the death penalty were proper because there was no provocation for his conduct, and the circumstances showed an abandoned and malignant heart together with a consciousness of guilt.

People V. Thomas, Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

In murder case, the court did not have the authority to reduce defendant's death sentence to life imprisonment because defendant failed to show prejudicial error with respect to the sentencing order.