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Faith In Fantasy: The Supreme Court's Reliance On Commutation To Ensure Justice In Death Penalty Cases, Victoria J. Palacios
Faith In Fantasy: The Supreme Court's Reliance On Commutation To Ensure Justice In Death Penalty Cases, Victoria J. Palacios
Vanderbilt Law Review
Since scarcely a decade after Furman v. Georgia,' the Supreme Court has struggled to avoid review of death penalty cases by narrowing the grounds defendants can use to challenge their sentences, as well as the procedures they can use to make those challenges. The Court supports its jurisprudence and the deregulation of death with an important but unexamined assumption: whatever shortcomings exist in the administration of the death penalty, ultimately injustice can and will be avoided by the exercise of the commutation power at the state level.
This Article argues that such an assumption is unwarranted. By substituting the fantasy …
Challenging The Death Penalty Under State Constitutions, James R. Acker, Elizabeth R. Walsh
Challenging The Death Penalty Under State Constitutions, James R. Acker, Elizabeth R. Walsh
Vanderbilt Law Review
Death penalty litigation that reaches the Supreme Court now causes at least as much consternation as hope among opponents of capital punishment. Simply not losing rights that once were considered secure can be tantamount to victory in capital cases decided by the Court,and few defendants and opponents of capital punishment expect much more. It was not always so. Hopes were once high that the Supreme Court, and the federal courts generally, would effectively bring an end to capital punishment in America.
That prospect is now remote, at best. Death row populations are sky rocketing and executions are on the rise. …