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Note, Encouraging Allocution At Capital Sentencing: A Proposal For Use Immunity, Caren Morrison

Caren Myers Morrison

This Note considers the self-incrimination dilemma raised by a capital defendant's allocution statements at the sentencing phase of his trial. Allocution gives a defendant the opportunity to make a direct plea to the sentencing judge or jury. However, in a system where reversals are common, admissions made at sentencing in one trial may be used against the defendant at retrial, chilling the practice. After examining the origins of this country's bifurcated system of capital punishment and tracing the evolution of the common law right of allocution, the author contends that this ancient practice should assume a greater role in the …