Publications & Testimony

Items: 6261 — 6270

Aug 01, 2002

United States Supreme Court Decisions: 2001 — 2002 Term

The Court denied Toronto Patterson’s appeal for a stay of exe­cu­tion in order to con­sid­er whether the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers is cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. Three Supreme Court Justices — Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen G. Breyer — dis­sent­ed, stat­ing that the Court should con­sid­er review­ing the death penal­ty for those who com­mit crimes before the age of 18. In his dis­sent­ing opin­ion, Justice Stevens wrote, ​“Given the appar­ent con­sen­sus that exists among…

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Jun 24, 2002

U.S. Supreme Court: Ring v. Arizona

In a 7 – 2 deci­sion in the case of Ring v. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a defen­dant has the right to have a jury, rather than a judge, decide on the exis­tence of an aggra­vat­ing fac­tor that makes the defen­dant eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. The Court based its judg­ment on the broad­er con­sti­tu­tion­al prin­ci­ple that the Sixth Amendment right to tri­al by jury encom­pass­es the right to a jury find­ing of all facts that are nec­es­sary to put a defen­dant to death. In its decision,…

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