Death Row Sentences Challenged as Court Rules Ring Decision is Retroactive

Relying on the fun­da­men­tal impor­tance of a defen­dan­t’s right to a jury tri­al, a fed­er­al appeals court issed a rul­ing that could over­turn many sen­tences in Arizona, Montana, and Idaho. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit ruled that an inmate’s sub­stan­tive con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were at issue when he was sen­tenced under state laws that per­mit­ted judges instead of juries to deter­mine eli­gi­bil­i­ty for the death penal­ty. By a vote of 8 – 3, the court ruled that the 2002 Supreme Court’s rul­ing in Ring v. Arizona, which requires that a jury be allowed to make crit­i­cal deci­sions in cap­i­tal tri­als, is retroac­tive. In that deci­sion, the U.S. Supreme Court did not address the ques­tion of whether its deci­sion should only apply to future cas­es. Judge Sidney R. Thomas, who authored the major­i­ty opin­ion for the 9^th Circuit, not­ed that “[A] require­ment of cap­i­tal find­ings by a jury will improve the accu­ra­cy of Arizona cap­i­tal mur­der tri­als.” (Washington Post, September 3, 2003). See DPIC’s page on Ring v. Arizona. To read the 9^th Circuit opin­ion go to http://​www​.ca9​.uscourts​.gov.