Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Publication
- File Type
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law
Fourteen Years Later: The Capital Punishment System In California, Robert M. Sanger
Fourteen Years Later: The Capital Punishment System In California, Robert M. Sanger
Robert M. Sanger
Fourteen years ago, the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment issued a Report recommending 85 reforms in the criminal justice system in that state to help minimize the possibility that an innocent person would be executed. The following year, this author conducted an empirical study, later published in the Santa Clara Law Review, to determine if California’s system was in need of the same reforms. The study concluded that over ninety-two percent of the same reforms were needed in California. In addition, the study showed that the California system had additional weaknesses beyond those of Illinois that also could lead to …
The Meaning Of "Meaningful Appellate Review" In Capital Cases: Lessons From California, Steven Shatz
The Meaning Of "Meaningful Appellate Review" In Capital Cases: Lessons From California, Steven Shatz
Steven F. Shatz
In Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court's seminal death penalty case, the Court held that the death penalty, as then administered, violated the Eighth Amendment because the penalty decision was so unguided and the imposition of the death penalty was so infrequent as to create an unconstitutional risk of arbitrariness. The Court's remedy, developed in subsequent decisions, was to require the state legislatures to "genuinely narrow the class of persons eligible for the death penalty" and the state courts to provide "meaningful appellate review" of death sentences. In recent years, a number of scholars have addressed the genuine narrowing requirement …