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Articles 1 - 25 of 25
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Supreme Court’S Rationale In Capital Cases: A One Way Street?, Kimberly Bliss
The Supreme Court’S Rationale In Capital Cases: A One Way Street?, Kimberly Bliss
Pace Law Review
No abstract provided.
Death Of The Challenge To Lethal Injection - Missouri's Protocol Deemed Constitutional Yet Again, Tanya M. Maerz
Death Of The Challenge To Lethal Injection - Missouri's Protocol Deemed Constitutional Yet Again, Tanya M. Maerz
Missouri Law Review
Lethal injection is currently the predominant form of execution nationwide. Most proponents of this method cite the convenience and the humanity of this procedure over past methods of execution. However, lethal injections are fraught with problems such as the specificity and safety of the written procedures themselves, implementation of such procedures, and whether lethal injection and executions in general are constitutional. Most often, prisoners file constitutional challenges to lethal injections under the Eighth Amendment, which prevents imposing cruel and unusual punishment on an American citizen. One of the more recent cases in Missouri cited such a challenge to the implementation …
Exoneration And Wrongful Condemnations: Expanding The Zone Of Perceived Injustice In Death Penalty Cases, Craig Haney
Exoneration And Wrongful Condemnations: Expanding The Zone Of Perceived Injustice In Death Penalty Cases, Craig Haney
Golden Gate University Law Review
In this article I argue that despite the very serious nature and surprisingly large number of these kinds of exonerations, revelations about factually innocent death-sentenced prisoners represent only the most dramatic, visible tip of a much larger problem that is submerged throughout our nation's system of death sentencing. That is, many of the very same flaws and factors that have given rise to these highly publicized wrongful convictions also produce a more common kind of miscarriage of justice in capital cases. I refer to death sentences that are meted out to defendants who, although they may be factually guilty of …
"Why Rebottle The Genie?": Capitalizing On Closure In Death Penalty Proceedings, Jody L. Madeira
"Why Rebottle The Genie?": Capitalizing On Closure In Death Penalty Proceedings, Jody L. Madeira
Indiana Law Journal
Closure, though a term with great rhetorical force in the capital punishment context, has to date evaded systematic analysis, instead becoming embroiled in ideological controversy. For victims who have rubbed the rights lamp for years, inclusion in capital proceedings and accompanying closure opportunities are perceived as a force with the potential to grant wishes of peace and finality. Scholars, however, argue for rebottling the closure genie lest closure itself prove false or its pursuit violate a defendant's constitutional rights. In order to effectively appraise the relationship of closure to criminal jurisprudence, however, and thus to decide whether and to what …
Mckenzie V. Day: Is Twenty Years On Death Row Cruel And Unusual Punishment?, Amber A. Bell
Mckenzie V. Day: Is Twenty Years On Death Row Cruel And Unusual Punishment?, Amber A. Bell
Golden Gate University Law Review
In 1976, the United States Supreme Court decided that capital punishment does not violate the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment. This note raises the question whether extended incarceration on death row invokes the protections of the Eighth Amendment. This note examines four aspects of this issue. First, it traces the facts and procedural history of McKenzie. Second, the history of cruel and unusual punishment jurisprudence is discussed. Third, it details and analyzes the majority and dissenting opinions. Finally, it demonstrates that McKenzie is a poorly reasoned opinion.
Some Questions About Gender And The Death Penalty, Elizabeth Rapaport
Some Questions About Gender And The Death Penalty, Elizabeth Rapaport
Golden Gate University Law Review
No capital punishment statute classifies by gender, but it is arguable that gender bias infects the administration of capital punishment because the discretion of prosecutors, juries and judges is employed to the advantage of female murderers. Prior to Furman, capital punishment statutes typically gave sentencing authorities untrammelled discretion to mete out life or death. Although sentencing discretion has been substantially reduced in the modern death penalty regime, it remains arguable post-Furman that the sparseness of women on death row testifies to the discriminatory use of capital sentencing discretion. However, in light of the recent decision in McCleskey v. Kemp, in …
Death And Texas: The Unevolved Model Of Decency, Patrick Metze
Death And Texas: The Unevolved Model Of Decency, Patrick Metze
Patrick Metze
Professor Metze takes a critical look at Texas‟s substantive capital murder statute, Texas Penal Code § 19.03, the current state of the law, the available constitutional history of each paragraph, the Texas Legislature's expansive growth of death eligible crimes, and the Court of Criminal Appeals' complicity in this development, arguing that the statute has become violative of due process as unconstitutionally vague in its application, returning Texas capital jurisprudence to its genesis, exposing virtually all that commit murder in Texas to a system that once again has become arbitrary, capricious, and discriminatory in its application to minorities and in particular …
There Must Be A Means: The Backward Jurisprudence Of Baze V. Rees, Nadia N. Sawicki
There Must Be A Means: The Backward Jurisprudence Of Baze V. Rees, Nadia N. Sawicki
Nadia N. Sawicki
The Supreme Court’s plurality opinion in Baze v. Rees begins with a seemingly simple assertion of constitutional law. “We begin with the principle, settled by Gregg, that capital punishment is constitutional.” It continues, “It necessarily follows that there must be a means of carrying it out.” This second pronouncement provides the foundation for the Supreme Court’s holding in Baze that Kentucky’s refusal to modify its lethal injection procedure does not violate the Eighth Amendment. However, in taking the position that the constitutionality of an existing method of capital punishment is dependent on the availability of alternative execution procedures, the Supreme …
Book Review Of The Last Lawyer: The Fight To Save Death Row Inmates, By John Temple, Kenneth Williams
Book Review Of The Last Lawyer: The Fight To Save Death Row Inmates, By John Temple, Kenneth Williams
Journal of Legal Education
No abstract provided.
The Impact Of Civilian Aggravating Factors On The Military Death Penalty (1984-2005): Another Chapter In The Resistance Of The Armed Forces To The Civilianization Of Military Justice, Catherine M. Grosso, David C. Baldus, George Woodworth
The Impact Of Civilian Aggravating Factors On The Military Death Penalty (1984-2005): Another Chapter In The Resistance Of The Armed Forces To The Civilianization Of Military Justice, Catherine M. Grosso, David C. Baldus, George Woodworth
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In 1984, the U.S. Armed Forces amended its capital punishment system for death eligible murder to bring it into compliance with Furman v. Georgia. Those amendments were modeled after death penalty legislation prevailing in over thirty states. After a brief period between 1986 and 1990, the charging decisions of commanders and the conviction and sentencing decisions of court martial members (jurors) transformed the military death penalty system into a dual system that treats two classes of death eligible murder quite differently. Since 1990, a member of the armed forces accused of a killing a commissioned officer or murder with a …
The Dance Of Death Or (Almost) "No One Here Gets Out Alive": The Fourth Circuit's Capital Punishment Jurisprudence, John H. Blume
The Dance Of Death Or (Almost) "No One Here Gets Out Alive": The Fourth Circuit's Capital Punishment Jurisprudence, John H. Blume
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
When Lightning Strikes Back: South Carolina's Return To The Unconstitutional Standardless Capital Sentencing Regime Of The Pre-Furman Era, John H. Blume, Sheri Johnson, Emily C. Paavola, Keir M. Weyble
When Lightning Strikes Back: South Carolina's Return To The Unconstitutional Standardless Capital Sentencing Regime Of The Pre-Furman Era, John H. Blume, Sheri Johnson, Emily C. Paavola, Keir M. Weyble
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
The Last Bankrupt Hanged: Balancing Incentives In The Development Of Bankruptcy Law, Emily Kadens
The Last Bankrupt Hanged: Balancing Incentives In The Development Of Bankruptcy Law, Emily Kadens
Duke Law Journal
This Article frames the history of the Anglo-American bankruptcy tradition as a search for solutions to the basic problem that has from the first underlain the bankruptcy process: how to obtain the assistance of a debtor in his financial dismantling. The pivotal moment in this story came in the years 1705 and 1706, when the English Parliament drafted a bill making the bankrupt's refusal to cooperate with the commissioners running his bankruptcy a capital crime. Almost as an afterthought, they also introduced discharge of debt. Incentivizing cooperation with discharge would have a fruitful future. Coercing the debtor to be honest, …
Lethal Discrimination 2: Repairing The Remedies For Racial Discrimination In Capital Sentencing, J. Thomas Sullivan
Lethal Discrimination 2: Repairing The Remedies For Racial Discrimination In Capital Sentencing, J. Thomas Sullivan
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The Facts About Ring V. Arizona And The Jury's Role In Capital Sentencing, Sam Kamin, Justin Marceau
The Facts About Ring V. Arizona And The Jury's Role In Capital Sentencing, Sam Kamin, Justin Marceau
Sam Kamin
When it was decided in 2002, Ring v. Arizona appeared to be a watershed in the way capital sentences are handed out in the United States: it overturned several states’ death penalty statutes and appeared to imperil many more. Ring announced that the rule of Apprendi v. New Jersey applied to capital sentencing and required that any fact necessary to the imposition of the death penalty be proven to a jury and beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet eight years after the case was decided, it is not clear what, if anything, Ring in fact demands of the states. Determining exactly …
The Death Penalty: Developments In Caribbean Jurisprudence, Anthony Gifford
The Death Penalty: Developments In Caribbean Jurisprudence, Anthony Gifford
International Journal of Legal Information
The presentation analyzes death penalty developments in the Caribbean jurisprudence. The discussion of a series of court decisions leads to the opinion that it is not right for the State to “end the life of a human being.” It questions death penalty as punishment for crime versus “the capacity of individuals for redemption and rehabilitation."
Statewide Capital Punishment: The Case For Eliminating Counties' Role In The Death Penalty, Adam M. Gershowitz
Statewide Capital Punishment: The Case For Eliminating Counties' Role In The Death Penalty, Adam M. Gershowitz
Vanderbilt Law Review
The State of Texas is known as the capital of capital punishment.' But is that reputation deserved? In a way, yes. Texas sends more people to death row than any other state, and it executes them far faster. However, in another way, it is incorrect to suggest that "the State" of Texas is a prolific user of capital punishment. Death penalty cases are prosecuted by counties, not the state, and a majority of Texas's counties have never imposed the death penalty. In fact, only a handful of Texas's 254 counties regularly seek the death penalty. Many other states have a …
Original Habeas Redux, Lee B. Kovarsky
Original Habeas Redux, Lee B. Kovarsky
Lee Kovarsky
In "Original Habeas Redux," I map the modern dimensions of the Supreme Court’s most exotic jurisdiction—the original habeas writ. The Court has not issued such relief since 1925 and, until recently, had not ordered a case transferred pursuant to that authority in over fifty years. In August 2009, by transferring a capital prisoner’s original habeas petition to a federal district court rather than dismissing it outright, In re Davis abruptly thrust this obscure power back into mainstream legal debate over both the death penalty and the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction. Scrambling to understand how the authority has evolved since its …
What's Messing With Texas Death Sentences?, David Mccord
What's Messing With Texas Death Sentences?, David Mccord
David McCord
This article empirically examines the decline in death sentences in Texas over about the last decade.
Death Ineligibility And Habeas Corpus, Lee B. Kovarsky
Death Ineligibility And Habeas Corpus, Lee B. Kovarsky
Faculty Scholarship
I examine the interaction between what I call 'death ineligibility' challenges and the habeas writ. A death ineligibility claim alleges that a criminally-confined capital prisoner belongs to a category of offenders for which the Eighth Amendment forbids execution. By contrast, a 'crime innocence' claim alleges that, colloquially speaking, a capital prisoner 'wasn’t there, and didn’t do it.' In the last eight years, the Supreme Court has identified several new ineligibility categories, including mentally retarded offenders. Configured primarily to address crime innocence and procedural challenges, however, modern habeas law is poorly equipped to accommodate ineligibility claims. Death Ineligibility traces the genesis …
Lessons Learned From The Evolution Of Evolving Standards, Corinna Barrett Lain
Lessons Learned From The Evolution Of Evolving Standards, Corinna Barrett Lain
Law Faculty Publications
In the discussion that follows, I explore the evolution of the "evolving standards" doctrine to make a point about its legitimacy and Supreme Court decisionmaking under the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause more generally. In Part I, I trace the origins of the doctrine to its present state. In Part II, I turn to lessons learned from the evolution of "evolving standards," questioning the textual defense of the doctrine and the constraining power of law itself. I conclude that while the "evolving standards" doctrine is problematic, it is not the crux of the problem. Supreme Court decisionmaking in the death …
Why Did China Reform Its Death Penalty?, Kandis Scott
Why Did China Reform Its Death Penalty?, Kandis Scott
Faculty Publications
China recently reformed its death penalty laws, and as a result the government has executed fewer prisoners. The author explores possible reasons and policy concerns behind China's legal reform. These influences include international forces and domestic factors, such as the media, changed circumstances, compassion, and politics. Although hardly transparent, the underlying motivations for the revisions suggest that eventually China may abolish capital punishment, perhaps even before the United States does so.
Limiting Death: Maryland’S New Death Penalty Law, Michael Millemann
Limiting Death: Maryland’S New Death Penalty Law, Michael Millemann
Maryland Law Review
In this Article, I describe and analyze the State of Maryland's 2009 death penalty law. This law adds three new death-eligibility criteria to the pre-existing law. These new evidentiary criteria supplement the pre-existing substantive death-eligibility criteria. As a result, Maryland now has one of the most restrictive death penalties in the country.
Documentation, Documentary, And The Law: What Should Be Made Of Victim Impact Videos?, Regina Austin
Documentation, Documentary, And The Law: What Should Be Made Of Victim Impact Videos?, Regina Austin
All Faculty Scholarship
Since the Supreme Court sanctioned the introduction of victim impact evidence in the sentencing phase of capital cases in Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U.S. 808 (1991), there have been a number of reported decisions in which that evidence has taken the form of videos composed of home-produced still photographs and moving images of the victim. Most of these videos were first shown at funerals or memorial services and contain music appropriate for such occasions. This article considers the probative value of victim impact videos and responds to the call of Justice John Paul Stevens, made in a statement regarding the …
Death, Ineligibility And Habeas Corpus, Lee B. Kovarsky
Death, Ineligibility And Habeas Corpus, Lee B. Kovarsky
Lee Kovarsky
I examine the interaction between what I call 'death ineligibility' challenges and the habeas writ. A death ineligibility claim alleges that a criminally-confined capital prisoner belongs to a category of offenders for which the Eighth Amendment forbids execution. By contrast, a 'crime innocence' claim alleges that, colloquially speaking, a capital prisoner 'wasn’t there, and didn’t do it.' In the last eight years, the Supreme Court has identified several new ineligibility categories, including mentally retarded offenders. Configured primarily to address crime innocence and procedural challenges, however, modern habeas law is poorly equipped to accommodate ineligibility claims. Death Ineligibility traces the genesis …