-Caveat Lector- http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/nation/story/251562p-2366840c.html
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Arizona case before Supreme Court may affect death sentences imposed in 9 states By JACKIE HALLIFAX, Associated Press Published 6:02 p.m. PST Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2002 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The fate of nearly 800 death row inmates in Florida and eight other states may hinge on the outcome of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that could have the most dramatic effect in 30 years on the way states apply the death penalty. The high court agreed last month to hear a case from Arizona that asks whether a judge instead of a jury can decide whether a convicted killer deserves the death penalty. The court's decision, expected by summer, could affect sentences already handed down in nine states where judges choose between a death sentence and life in prison for a convicted killer. In Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Nebraska, juries have no role in sentencing those they convict in capital cases. In Florida, Alabama, Delaware and Indiana, juries make recommendations but judges make the decision. "It goes to the very heart of what we mean by the right to a jury trial, and we have argued it forever," said Denise Young, a lawyer in Tucson, Ariz., who represents death row inmates. Defenders of the sentencing laws at issue have argued that judges can be better than juries at applying the law without passion. Having a judge make the choice may lead to fewer death sentences, or sentences better able to withstand scrutiny on appeal, some prosecutors have said. Florida leads the nine states with 372 inmates on death row, followed by Alabama with 184, Arizona with 128 and Indiana with 39. The court could rule broadly on whether it is ever appropriate to have a judge make the final call or confine its ruling to the situation in Arizona and the four other states with nearly identical laws. Since the Supreme Court agreed on Jan. 11 to hear the challenge to Arizona's law, it has granted stays of execution to two Florida inmates whose lawyers had cited the pending Arizona case. That has led some lawyers to suggest that the Supreme Court believes that Florida's law - and those like it - are constitutionally suspect, too. Under Florida's law, a judge can impose the death penalty even if a jury recommends a life sentence. Exactly what would happen if the death penalty laws in the nine states were invalidated is not clear. Some lawyers have speculated that the death row inmates' sentences could be commuted to life in prison. Or the inmates might be resentenced, with some receiving a death sentence all over again. The defendant in the Arizona case is Timothy Ring, who was condemned for the 1994 murder of an armored car driver during a holdup. His case could be the biggest challenge to the nation's death penalty laws since 1972, when the Supreme Court declared that capital punishment had become too "arbitrary and capricious." The court imposed a moratorium on capital punishment across the country, leading to some 600 death sentences in dozens of states being reduced to life in prison. In 1984 the Supreme Court upheld Florida's law against a challenge that asserted it violates the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury. In 1990, the high court upheld Arizona's law against a similar challenge. But in June 2000, a Supreme Court decision in an unrelated New Jersey case gave new hope to death row lawyers. In Apprendi v. New Jersey, the justices struck down the state's hate crime law, ruling that a judge could not use the law to lengthen the sentence of a man who shot into a black family's home. To do so meant the judge was considering facts not put before the jury, and that violates the Constitution's guarantee of trial by jury, the court ruled. Defense attorneys hope the Supreme Court will apply that reasoning to laws that allow judges to impose the death penalty. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
