Entries tagged with “John Cruz”
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Intellectual Disability
,Representation
,Sentencing Alternatives
,Jun 07, 2021
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of May 31, 2021
NEWS (6/4/21) — Arizona: The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in Lynch v. Arizona, which struck down the state’s unconstitutional refusal to instruct capital-sentencing juries that defendants who are sentenced to life are not eligible for parole, does not provide grounds for a death-row prisoner to seek new state-court review of that…
Facts & Research
United States Supreme Court
,Feb 23, 2023
U.S. Supreme Court Reverses Arizona Ruling That Barred Death Row Appeal
In a 5 – 4 decision in Cruz v. Arizona on February 22, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court held that John Cruz should have been able to inform his sentencing jury that if he were spared a death sentence, he never would have been eligible for parole. The Court said that its holding was in direct line with its previous decisions in Simmons v. South Carolina and Lynch v. Arizona, which established this right and its specific applicability to Arizona. This ruling not only allows…