Capital Punishment
Week 10
For your Supreme Court Case
What was the constitutional question?
What was the decision? What did it change/uphold about the death penalty?
Group 1: Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510 (1968)
Does a state statue that provides grounds for the dismissal of any juror with "conscientious scruples" against capital punishment violate the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of an "impartial jury" and the 14th Amendment's guarantee of due process?
Dismissal of prospective jurors that had feelings of doubt towards death penalty. Witherspoon appealed stating dismissal of jurors with qualms towards capital punishment violated his sixth amendment right to an impartial jury and 14th amendment to due process.
The court decided they were for it. It was a 6-3 vote that Witherspoon's death sentence was unconstitutional. The Court had decided that a jury composed after the dismissal of all those who opposed the death sentence was biased in favor of the death sentence. Therefore, the jury was not impartial and it violated the 6th and 14th Amendment. 6
Group 2: Furman v. Georgia , 408 U.S. 238 (1972)
What was the constitutional question?
If the death penalty would be considered a cruel and unusual punishment. It was going against the Eighth Amendment.
What was the decision? What did it change/uphold about the death penalty? �The case change how the death penalty was upheld and put death pentaly back on the books under different circumstances.
The court decided that this case along with the previous cases (Furman: Jackson v. Georgia and Branch v. Texas.) were a violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment.
Group 3: Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586 (1978)
What was the constitutional question?
What was the decision? What did it change/uphold about the death penalty?
Group 4: Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986)
What was the constitutional question?
What was the decision? What did it change/uphold about the death penalty?
Group 5: McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987)
What was the constitutional question?
Did Statistical Data prove McCleskey’s sentence violated his eighth and fourteenth amendment rights?
What was the decision? What did it change/uphold about the death penalty?
Statistical data should be presented to legislative bodies, not the courts.
5-4 decision upholding that there was no constitutional violation.
The Eighth Amendment is not violated unless a state sentences defendants to death in a manner that is completely arbitrary and lacking in reason
The presence of some bias is to be expected because the system allows discretion, and this does not make it unconstitutional.
Group 6: Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35 (2008)
Baze v. Rees is the decision by the US Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of lethal Injection (Four Drugs) for capital punishment.
Question: Does lethal injection violate 8th amendment right of cruel and unusual punishment?
Decision: 7-2 does not violate the 8th amendment ,. If it was performed correctly, it is not cruel and unusual punishment.
Group 1 - Cost of the Death Penalty
The extent of the issue is that the death penalty costs significantly more than carrying out a life sentence. In Maryland, an average death penalty case which resulted in an execution cost about $3 million per person. In Kansas, capital punishment cases are 70% more expensive than those that do not pursue a death sentence. Additionally, in California the death penalty has cost $4 billion since 1978.
Not everyone who is sentenced to death is executed. Since the punishment is permanent, the U.S. legal system provides many opportunities for the defense to avoid it. Between 1973 and 2013, around 75% of those who recieved the death penalty were not executed
In terms of cost, the death penalty cannot be fixed, it needs to be ended. Proposition 62 aims to repeal the death penalty and make life without parole the maximum punishment for crimes that are now punishable by death.
Group 2 - FILL IN YOUR ISSUE
Group 3 - Racial Disparities in Capital Punishment
There is an issue with minorities being overly represented on death row.
“People of color have accounted for a disproportionate 43% of total executions since 1976 and 55% of those are currently awaiting execution.”
“Race and the Death Penalty.” American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/other/race-and-death-penalty.
Group 4 - Wrongful convictions
Policy Implication could include making it a requirement to have strong evidence in order for someone to be executed. This may make it harder to sentence someone to death because sometimes the prosecutor lacks good or strong evidence. Another policy could be giving them adequate legal assistance.
Group 5 - Time and Cost of Death Row
More than half of the inmates of death row have been waiting anywhere from 10-20 years to be executed. In 2013, ,the average wait time was 25 years and it is still continuing to grow today.
Death-row inmates are isolated from the rest of the prison population and spend 23 hours a day alone in there cells. Many inmates have anxiety because they are constantly on edge wondering how long they will be waiting until they will be sentenced to death. These combining factors cause death-row inmates mental health to deteriorate extremely quickly.
Find a way to make the appeals process faster, smoother, and less costly to inmates in order to get their cases heard.
Limit the amount of time inmates are waiting on death row, the Bristish appeals court ruled that waiting over 5 years on death row is considered cruel and double punishment. Maybe we should apply this to the U.S system
Group 6 - FILL IN YOUR ISSUE
The issue is that lethal injection sometimes is administered incorrectly, which can cause the offender to suffer physically and mentally. 7.12% of lethal injection executions are botched (75 of 1,054 botched).
Find an alternative method for execution of the individual that is not lethal injection