The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in two death penalty cases on Wednesday, December 7, 2005, including a case to determine the constitutionality of Kansas’ death penalty statute and a case that involves the issue of innocence.

In Kansas v. Marsh, No. 04-1170, the justices will consider the constitutionality of Kansas’ death penalty, which requires that a death sentence be imposed when a jury finds that aggravating circumstance and mitigating circumstances have equal weight. The jury in Marsh’s death sentencing hearing was directed according to the statute that if it found the aggravating circumstances and mitigating circumstances to have equal weight, the death penalty would be required. Marsh was sentenced to death. The Justices will review the Kansas court’s decision that there is “no way” the weighing equation is permissible under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. It will also consider two additional questions: 1) Does this Court have jurisdiction to review the judgment of the Kansas Supreme Court under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1257, as construed by Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U.S. 469 (1975)?, and 2) Was the Kansas Supreme Court’s judgment adequately supported by a ground independent of federal law?

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In the second case, Oregon v. Guzek, No. 04-928, the Justices will consider a defendant’s right to introduce evidence that would cast doubt on his conviction during the sentencing phase of his trial. The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that a capital defendant has a right under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to offer evidence and argument in support of a residual-doubt claim.

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See U.S. Supreme Court.