On Monday, April 19, the United States Supreme Court will hear argu­ments in the case of Schriro v. Summerlin that will deter­mine whether a pri­or deci­sion applies only to some death row inmates in the first stage of their appeals or to all inmates in the affect­ed states. In 2002, the Court held in Ring v. Arizona that juries, not judges, must decide who is eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. The new rul­ing could affect over 100 death row inmates in at least 5 states. At the con­clu­sion of Summerlin’s 1982 tri­al, Judge Philip Marquardt, who was lat­er dis­barred after admit­ting that he was addict­ed to mar­i­jua­na, found the exis­tence of two aggra­vat­ing fac­tors and sen­tenced Summerlin to death. This case will deter­mine whether the ben­e­fits of Ring, uphold­ing the Sixth Amendment’s require­ment of jury fact-find­ing, apply only to defen­dants like Ring, who were in the first stage of their appeal, or apply equal­ly to the larg­er group of inmates like Summerlin, whose cas­es are old­er. Summerlin had repeat­ed­ly raised the jury issue in his ear­li­er appeals. See Supreme Court and DPIC’s Ring v. Arizona page.

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