Entries tagged with “Jury Sentencing”
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Sep 10, 2021
California Supreme Court Upholds Death-Penalty Statute Against Challenge That Could Have Overturned Hundreds of Death Sentences
The California Supreme Court has upheld the state’s death-penalty statute against a constitutional challenge that had the potential to overturn the sentences of hundreds of people on California’s death row. In a unanimous ruling issued August 26, 2021 in People v. McDaniel, the court held that a capital jury need not unanimously agree to the existence of an aggravating circumstance before weighing it in the sentencing decision so long as every juror found that the…
Jun 27, 2023
Florida’s New Non-Unanimous Capital Sentencing Law Faces Retroactivity Challenge in State Supreme Court
The resentencing hearings of several death-sentenced men in Florida came to an abrupt halt last week as the Florida Supreme Court considers the effect of the state’s new capital sentencing law. Earlier this year, the Florida legislature passed a new capital sentencing law to allow juries to impose a death sentence if at least 8 out of 12 jurors vote in favor. But several death row defendants who were scheduled to be resentenced objected that the new law unfairly made their chances of being…
Policy Issues
Sentencing Alternatives
,Apr 08, 2020
Nebraska Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to State’s Capital Sentencing Procedures
The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the state’s death penalty law against a claim that its death-sentencing procedure violates capital defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to a jury…
Policy Issues
Human Rights
,Jun 17, 2024
Research Roundup: Anti-Queer Practices in Capital Cases
This is the first in a new monthly series covering academic research and articles in the field of capital…
Policy Issues
Mental Illness
,United States Supreme Court
,Feb 27, 2020
U.S. Supreme Court Rules that Arizona Man Unconstitutionally Sentenced to Death Is Not Entitled to Jury Resentencing
A divided U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that James McKinney (pictured), an Arizona death-row prisoner who was unconstitutionally sentenced to death by a trial judge who did not consider mitigating evidence relating to his severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder from relentless childhood abuse, is not entitled to a jury trial to determine his sentence. On February 25, 2020, in a 5 – 4 opinion authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Court upheld the…