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Full-Text Articles in Law
Protecting Procedural Safeguards In Federal Capital Trials: United States V. Tsarnaev, Ashley Dabiere
Protecting Procedural Safeguards In Federal Capital Trials: United States V. Tsarnaev, Ashley Dabiere
Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar
The Commentary considers the constitutionality of (1) the trial court’s exclusion of relevant mitigating evidence during the trial’s penalty phase and (2) the imposition of a death sentence by the Supreme Court during a moratorium on federal executions. In the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the jury ultimately convicted Dzhokhar of thirty counts and recommended death sentences for six of the capital offenses. On appeal, the First Circuit vacated these death sentences and remanded the case for a new sentencing hearing with a different jury. First, the Court of Appeals held that the voir dire used …
Moore V. Texas: Balancing Medical Advancements With Judicial Stability, Emily Taft
Moore V. Texas: Balancing Medical Advancements With Judicial Stability, Emily Taft
Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar
In Moore v. Texas, the Supreme Court will consider whether the Eighth Amendment requires States to adhere to a particular organization’s most recent clinical definition of intellectual disability in determining whether a person is exempt from the death penalty under Atkins v. Virginia and Hall v. Florida. Generally, the Supreme Court has carved away at the death penalty with each new case it takes. This commentary argues that the Supreme Court should not continue that trend in this case and should find for Texas because the state’s intellectual disability determination is consistent with the Eighth Amendment under Atkins …