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Articles 1 - 21 of 21
Full-Text Articles in Law
Distorted Burden Shifting & Barred Mitigation: Being A Stubborn 234 Years Old Ironically Hasn’T Helped The Supreme Court Mature, Noah Seabrook
Distorted Burden Shifting & Barred Mitigation: Being A Stubborn 234 Years Old Ironically Hasn’T Helped The Supreme Court Mature, Noah Seabrook
Journal of Law and Health
This Note explores the intricate relationship between emerging adulthood, defined as the transitional phase between youth and adulthood (ages 18-25), and the legal implications of capital punishment. Contrary to a fixed age determining adulthood, research highlights the prolonged nature of the maturation process, especially for individuals impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The Note challenges the current legal framework that deems individuals aged 18 to 25 who experienced ACEs as eligible for capital punishment, highlighting the cognitive impact of ACEs on developmental trajectories. Examining cases like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Billy Joe Wardlow, this Note argues that courts often bypass mitigating …
Stories That Kill: Masculinity And Capital Prosecutors' Closing Arguments, Pamela A. Wilkins
Stories That Kill: Masculinity And Capital Prosecutors' Closing Arguments, Pamela A. Wilkins
Cleveland State Law Review
The American death penalty is a punishment by, for, and about men: Both historically and today, most capital prosecutors are men, most capital defendants are men, and killing itself is strongly coded male. Yet despite—or perhaps because of—the overwhelming maleness of the institution of capital punishment, the subject of masculinity is largely absent from legal discourse about the death penalty. This Article addresses that gap in the legal discourse by applying the insights of masculinities theory, an offshoot of feminist theory, to capital prosecutors’ closing arguments. This Article hypothesizes that capital prosecutors’ masculinity is strongly influenced both by white Southern …
An Examination Of The Death Penalty, Alexandra N. Kremer
An Examination Of The Death Penalty, Alexandra N. Kremer
The Downtown Review
The death penalty, or capital punishment, is the use of execution through hanging, beheading, drowning, gas chambers, lethal injection, and electrocution among others in response to a crime. This has spurred much debate on whether it should be used for reasons such as ethics, revenge, economics, effectiveness as a deterrent, and constitutionality. Capital punishment has roots that date back to the 18th century B.C., but, as of 2016, has been abolished in law or practice by more than two thirds of the world’s countries and several states within the United States. Here, the arguments for and against the death …
The Marriage Of State Law And Individual Rights And A New Limit On The Federal Death Penalty, Jonathan Ross
The Marriage Of State Law And Individual Rights And A New Limit On The Federal Death Penalty, Jonathan Ross
Cleveland State Law Review
Since the 1990s, federal prosecutors have, with increasing frequency, sought the death penalty for federal offenses committed in and also punishable under the laws of non-death penalty states. Critics of this practice have pointed out that federal prosecutors can use the federal death penalty to circumvent a state's abolition of capital punishment. Courts, however, have almost unanimously rejected arguments that state law should be a shield from federal punishment for federal offenses. This article proposes a novel way to challenge the federal death penalty's use in a non-death penalty state—the Supreme Court's reasoning in United States v. Windsor. In Windsor, …
The Hanging Judge By Michael A. Ponsor––Capital Punishment: Is The Death Penalty Worth The Price?, Beth D. Cohen, Pat K. Newcombe
The Hanging Judge By Michael A. Ponsor––Capital Punishment: Is The Death Penalty Worth The Price?, Beth D. Cohen, Pat K. Newcombe
Cleveland State Law Review
No abstract provided.
Capital Punishment, Psychiatrists And The Potential Bottleneck Of Competence , Jacob M. Appel
Capital Punishment, Psychiatrists And The Potential Bottleneck Of Competence , Jacob M. Appel
Journal of Law and Health
The purpose of this paper is to merge two largely separate bodies of writing on the subject of psychiatric participation in capital punishment. Much has already been written from the perspective of legal academics regarding the rights of prisoners to be free from unwanted medical care if the purpose of providing such care is to render them fit for execution. Medical ethicists have also written much on the degree to which physicians, and specifically psychiatrists, may participate in facilitating the death penalty before they become so complicit as to violate accepted standards of professional ethics. Surprisingly, these two fields of …
Inconsistent Methods For The Adjudication Of Alleged Mentally Retarded Individuals: A Comparison Of Ohio's And Georgia's Post-Atkins Frameworks For Determining Mental Retardation, Scott R. Poe
Cleveland State Law Review
This Note compares Ohio's and Georgia's post-Atkins frameworks for determining mental retardation. Ohio's framework offers a fairer application of Atkins and should serve as a guide for a national legal standard for use by state trial courts to determine mental retardation. Specifically, Ohio's use of preponderance of the evidence is a more appropriate standard of proof for determining mental retardation because it better reaches the overall goal in Atkins. Allowing the judge to make the mental retardation determination protects the alleged mentally retarded defendant from potential jury bias. Because Ohio's and Georgia's definitions of mental retardation are substantially similar and …
Not To Decide Is To Decide: The U.S. Supreme Court's Thirty-Year Struggle With One Case About Competency To Waive Death Penalty Appeals, Phyllis L. Crocker
Not To Decide Is To Decide: The U.S. Supreme Court's Thirty-Year Struggle With One Case About Competency To Waive Death Penalty Appeals, Phyllis L. Crocker
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Rees v. Peyton, a case that had been on its docket since 1965. Rees was a death penalty case in which the petitioner sought to withdraw his petition for writ of certiorari so that he could be executed. The Court stayed the proceedings after Rees was found incompetent to waive his appeal, but the Court did not dismiss the case until after Rees died of natural causes. Rees pended in the Court during the terms of three Chief Justices. Even though the Court underwent major changes in personnel and philosophy during those years, …
Nothing Less Than The Dignity Of Man: Evolving Standards, Botched Executions And Utah's Controversial Use Of The Firing Squad , Christopher Q. Cutler
Nothing Less Than The Dignity Of Man: Evolving Standards, Botched Executions And Utah's Controversial Use Of The Firing Squad , Christopher Q. Cutler
Cleveland State Law Review
While outrage boils to the surface when Utah uses its firing squad option, there is little substantive legal development concerning the firing squad's use. Few cases have challenged the firing squad's constitutionality. This article discusses the legal and political implications of the firing squad. Using the Supreme Court's everdeveloping Eighth Amendment jurisprudence as a guide, this article discusses whether the firing squad, both historically and in its present application, passes constitutional muster. Beyond those factors that trigger constitutional protection, this article discusses those elements of the firing squad's use which define society's humanity and demonstrate our dignity. In the end, …
The Right To Kill In Cold Blood: Does The Death Penalty Violate Human Rights, Alan Ryan
The Right To Kill In Cold Blood: Does The Death Penalty Violate Human Rights, Alan Ryan
Cleveland State Law Review
The essence of the argument is this: all punishment must be inflicted in cold blood; whatever damage we do to others not in cold blood is not punishment but self-defense or revenge; what we have a right to inflict in cold blood is a question of the rules of just social cooperation and especially the justice of the sanctions required to sustain those rules; it is here argued that the fundamental principle is that we may inflict whatever punishment is necessary to deter wrongdoing and not disproportionate to the offence; I do not dismiss 'pure' retribution as a goal of …
Childhood Abuse And Adult Murder: Implications For The Death Penalty, Phyllis L. Crocker
Childhood Abuse And Adult Murder: Implications For The Death Penalty, Phyllis L. Crocker
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
A jury that convicts a defendant of capital murder must then decide whether that defendant deserves a life sentence or death. Mitigating evidence is crucial to the defense at this stage because such evidence may provide the jury with a basis for imposing a life sentence. In this article, Professor Crocker argues that evidence that a defendant was abused as a child is paradigmatic mitigating evidence. A detailed presentation of the defendant's childhood experience and a cogent explanation of its long-term repercussions will enable the jury to understand why the defendant committed the crime, perhaps allowing the jury to sympathize …
Life, Death And The Law - And Why Capital Punishment Is Legally Insupportable , Peter Fitzpatrick
Life, Death And The Law - And Why Capital Punishment Is Legally Insupportable , Peter Fitzpatrick
Cleveland State Law Review
Given that law has an integral commitment to life, in this lecture I want to show how the law should manifest something of a fundamental dissonance, even a terminal incoherence, when law is called upon to deal death. That is what happens in the judicial discourse on the death penalty in the United States. I will approach this demonstration in a way that may at first seem paradoxical, in a way that will bring out the deep affinity between law and death. That affinity is one in which death is, in a sense, the limit of law; a limit that …
Standards And Procedures For Determining Whether A Defendant Is Competent To Make The Ultimate Choice - Death; Ohio's New Precedent For Death Row Volunteers, Matthew T. Norman
Standards And Procedures For Determining Whether A Defendant Is Competent To Make The Ultimate Choice - Death; Ohio's New Precedent For Death Row Volunteers, Matthew T. Norman
Journal of Law and Health
Despite the fact that many states will allow a death row defendant to waive his legal appeals in order to hasten his execution date, there are inadequate standards and procedures for determining whether the "volunteer" is first competent to make this ultimate decision of life versus death. To provide background for this issue, this Note will discuss the events initially leading up to the nation's first death row "volunteer", then it will introduce subsequent volunteers of the present day. This Note then will look at what the United States Supreme Court has said about the standards and procedures that are …
Feminism And Defending Men On Death Row, Phyllis L. Crocker
Feminism And Defending Men On Death Row, Phyllis L. Crocker
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
In this Essay I explore the relationship between being a feminist and representing men on death row. It is appropriate to engage in this inquiry in considering how the law has developed in the twenty-five years since Furman v. Georgia. During that time both Furman and the advent of feminist legal theory have required a restructuring in the way we think about two fundamental legal questions: for death penalty jurisprudence, how and why we sentence an individual to death; and for feminist jurisprudence, how the law views crimes of violence against women. The relationship between these two developments becomes apparent …
Concepts Of Culpability And Deathworthiness: Differentiating Between Guilt And Punishment In Death Penalty Cases, Phyllis L. Crocker
Concepts Of Culpability And Deathworthiness: Differentiating Between Guilt And Punishment In Death Penalty Cases, Phyllis L. Crocker
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
The punishment of death is supposed to be reserved for those defendants who commit the most grievous murders and deserve the most extreme punishment. It is constitutionally insufficient to conclude that because a defendant is guilty of committing murder, death is the only deserved punishment. The judgment that a defendant is one of the few who will be sentenced to death requires an inquiry that looks beyond the defendant's guilt to consider whether the defendant is worthy of a death sentence. This article argues that the distinction between a defendant's guilt and deathworthiness is so often obscured that defendants who …
Murder, Capital Punishment, And Deterrence: A Review Of The Evidence And An Examination Of Police Killings., William C. Bailey, Ruth Peterson
Murder, Capital Punishment, And Deterrence: A Review Of The Evidence And An Examination Of Police Killings., William C. Bailey, Ruth Peterson
Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications
This paper reviews and assesses the empirical literature on murder, capital punishment, and deterrence. There is a large body of evidence regarding these issues, with studies yielding a rather consistent pattern of nondeterrence. However, most investigations are limited because they rely upon the general homicide rate as the criterion variable, although both legally and theoretically, different types of murder may be differentially subject to deterrence. As an example of how deterrence investigations may benefit from examining different types of homicide, we conduct a monthly time-series analysis of the possible deterrent effect of the provision for capital punishment, levels of execution, …
Jury Waiver In Capital Cases: An Assessment Of The Voluntary, Knowing, And Intelligent Standard, Paul Mancino Iii
Jury Waiver In Capital Cases: An Assessment Of The Voluntary, Knowing, And Intelligent Standard, Paul Mancino Iii
Cleveland State Law Review
This Note analyzes both the federal and various state standards as to what constitutes a voluntary, knowing, and intelligent waiver of trial by jury in capital cases. Through this analysis it will become apparent that the various standards among the different jurisdictions of a voluntary, knowing, and intelligent waiver are marked with disparity. This Note also argues that the jury waiver statutes in many jurisdictions fail to provide enough information for the capital defendant to make a voluntary, knowing, and intelligent waiver of the right to trial by jury while cognizant of the relevant circumstances and likely consequences. This deficiency …
Chaining The Leviathan: The Unconstitutionality Of Executing Those Convicted Of Treason, James G. Wilson
Chaining The Leviathan: The Unconstitutionality Of Executing Those Convicted Of Treason, James G. Wilson
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
This article focuses on two words: executing traitors. We have a good idea of what the first word means, even if we repress the sordid details of the actual dying. Treason, however, is a word notable both for its ambiguity and for the powerful emotions it evokes, emotions found in such equally potent words as betrayal, war and defeat. As will be seen, by limiting the crime to two types of actions and by requiring unique procedural protections, the drafters of the Constitution balanced the country's need for protection from treason against their fear that a future administration might instigate …
Some Legislative History And Comments On Ohio's New Criminal Code , Harry J. Lehman, Alan E. Norris
Some Legislative History And Comments On Ohio's New Criminal Code , Harry J. Lehman, Alan E. Norris
Cleveland State Law Review
Having briefly outlined the history of the formal development of the Act, it is the purpose of this Article to discuss in narrative form the legislative process on certain key provisions which were the subject of much debate and disagreement. These areas of disagreement include murder and felony penalties, especially minimum sentences; capital punishment to conform to the U.S. Supreme Court's Furman decision as well as other changes; parole eligibility for those serving life sentences for a capital offense; early release on parole, also known as shock parole; eligibility for probation; definition of reasonable doubt and jury instructions on reasonable …
The Response To Furman: Can Legislators Breathe Life Back Into Death, Carol Irvin, Howard E. Rose
The Response To Furman: Can Legislators Breathe Life Back Into Death, Carol Irvin, Howard E. Rose
Cleveland State Law Review
In the eighteen months since the Supreme Court of the United States struck down capital punishment in Furman v. Georgia twenty-three states have reinstated the death penalty. While the Supreme Court has not yet heard arguments concerning the constitutionality of these statutes, their validity will determine the fate of the forty-four persons currently awaiting execution in eight states. It is the purpose of this comment to consider the statutes reinstating capital punishment, in light of Furman.
Should Ohio Abolish Capital Punishment, Richard J. Goetz
Should Ohio Abolish Capital Punishment, Richard J. Goetz
Cleveland State Law Review
In view of all the controversy surrounding this topic, it is interesting to review the history of the death penalty in Ohio, in other states, and elsewhere in the world.