Death Penalty issues

The bill seeking to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act has “little-noticed provisions that would dramatically transform the federal death penalty system, allowing smaller juries to decide on executions and giving federal prosecutors the ability to try again if a jury ends in deadlock on sentencing issues,” an article in Wednesday morning’s Washington Post reveals. (bill summary)

As the Supreme Court entered its new session this month, death penalty issues seemed to rank high on its agenda, according to media outlets.

Capital punishment for juveniles was ruled unconstitutional last March in Roper v. Simmons, and a bill seeking to abolish the death penalty altogether for Federal laws, introduced in January, is in the Senate Judiciary Committee. (More).

Addressing the ABA in August, Supreme Court Justice Stevens commented about concerns he had with respect to the death penalty & recent exonerations of death row inmates thru scientific evidence. Pending is House v. Bell, which addresses standards of proof for granting new hearings for capital defendants based on new DNA evidence

In 2002, the Supreme Court held in Ring v. Arizona that a jury, as opposed to a judge, has to make findings of “aggravating factors” where the death or a lesser penalty lies in the balance. Now, in Brown v. Sanders, the issue is revisited, being extended to determine whether a death sentence is improper when a jury had relied on aggravating factors later found invalid.

Two cases, Oregon v. Guzek and Kansas v. Marsh, are considering whether evidence questioning guilt can be presented at sentencing and whether the death sentence should be imposed when jurors find the arguments both for & against have equal weight.

Death row inmates don’t automatically have a right to a jury trial on claims that they’re mentally retarded and therefore can’t be executed. (See Schriro v. Smith)

The Court decided not to hear a case where the issue was whether a second jury should consider whether guilty parties should receive the death penalty or a lesser sentence.