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Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Law
Deterrence And The Death Penalty: A Study Of The Effects Of Capital Punishment On Homicide, Jacob Stump
Deterrence And The Death Penalty: A Study Of The Effects Of Capital Punishment On Homicide, Jacob Stump
Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects
The death penalty receives an abundance of criticism within the United States, as critics argue it to be cruel and an unjust form of punishment. As the debate carries on and more states illegalize the death penalty, the largest point of contention centers on the question: to what extent does the death penalty deter homicides from occurring? This analysis is critical to the implementation of the death penalty, as many legal scholars cite its ability to deter to be its strongest argument for persisting. Ultimately, any argument that undermines this theory provides a greater incentive for abolition, as the death …
Lockett Symposium: Lockett As It Was, Is Now, And Ever Shall Should Be, Karen A. Steele
Lockett Symposium: Lockett As It Was, Is Now, And Ever Shall Should Be, Karen A. Steele
ConLawNOW
Lockett made clear what was constitutionally unacceptable in capital sentencing statutes (limiting the range of mitigating factors to be considered) while affirmatively heralding the significance and breadth of mitigating factors unique to the defendant that must be affirmatively and independently considered by jurors, courts and counsel; the inverse correlation between mitigating factors and disproportionate sentencing; and the interrelationship between mitigating factors and narrowing—all in an effort to provide a “meaningful basis for distinguishing the few cases in which the death penalty is imposed from the many cases in which it is not.” The threatened and actual use of “double-edged” aspects …
Lockett Symposium: Justice White's Lockett Concurrence And The Evolving Standards For A Capital Defendant's Mens Rea, Jordan Berman
Lockett Symposium: Justice White's Lockett Concurrence And The Evolving Standards For A Capital Defendant's Mens Rea, Jordan Berman
ConLawNOW
In Lockett v. Ohio, Justice Byron White authored a separate concurring opinion specifically to assert that capital punishment violates the Eighth Amendment when imposed absent “a finding that the defendant possessed a purpose to cause the death of the victim.” This view was largely vindicated when Justice White authored the opinions in Enmund v. Florida and Cabana v. Bullock, in which the Court held that the death sentence could not constitutionally be imposed on one who did not kill or attempt to kill or have any intention of participating in or facilitating a killing. Nonetheless, just one year …
Dissecting The Aba Texas Capital Punishment Assessment Report Of 2013: Death And Texas, A Surprising Improvement, Patrick S. Metze
Dissecting The Aba Texas Capital Punishment Assessment Report Of 2013: Death And Texas, A Surprising Improvement, Patrick S. Metze
Akron Law Review
Professor Metze dissects the American Bar Association report, September 2013, entitled Evaluating Fairness and Accuracy in State Death Penalty Systems: The Texas Capital Punishment Assessment Report—An Analysis of Texas’s Death Penalty Laws, Procedures and Practices. This Report was produced by the ABA’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, specifically the Death Penalty Due Process Review Project, which identified 12 inadequacies in the Texas Capital Punishment System, recommended changes, and evaluated compliance. Now, four years and two legislative sessions later, this Article explores what Texas has done in the interim to improve its death penalty process. Incredibly, the Article concludes …
The Death Penalty And Justice Scalia's Lines, J. Richard Broughton
The Death Penalty And Justice Scalia's Lines, J. Richard Broughton
Akron Law Review
In Justice Scalia’s lone dissenting opinion in Morrison v. Olson, he lamented that, after the Court had upheld a law that he believed violated the separation of powers, “there are now no lines.” Lines were of critical importance to Justice Scalia – in law and in life – and informed much of his work on criminal law issues (Morrison, after all, was a case about the nature of federal prosecutorial authority). In the area of capital punishment, in particular, Justice Scalia saw clear lines that the Court should not cross. He believed that the Constitution contemplates the …
Capital Punishment Of Children In Ohio: "They'd Never Send A Boy Of Seventeen To The Chair In Ohio, Would They?", Victor L. Streib
Capital Punishment Of Children In Ohio: "They'd Never Send A Boy Of Seventeen To The Chair In Ohio, Would They?", Victor L. Streib
Akron Law Review
This article presents first an overview of the national legal environment and actual executions in American history and then a focused, in-depth analysis of Ohio as a reasonably representative American jurisdiction. Each of the nineteen verified and documented Ohio cases are examined in some detail to determine, so far as is possible, the reasons they were selected for capital punishment. The cases are discussed within the context of the legal environment existing at the time they were decided.
Stanford V. Kentucky: Did The Court Bite The Constitutional Bullet?, John R. Frank
Stanford V. Kentucky: Did The Court Bite The Constitutional Bullet?, John R. Frank
Akron Law Review
The Court's opinion in Stanford v. Kentucky and the companion case, Wilkins v. Missouri, reflects a fragile consensus among the five justices who affirmed Stanford's and Wilkins' death sentences."' This note explores the Court's holding and its internal conflict over the proper scope of eighth amendment analysis.