Nationally, the biggest criminal law story of the week was the decision by a federal judge in California declaring the state’s death penalty unconstitutional. The case is Jones v. Chappell, and the essence of the Eighth Amendment argument is this: Since 1978, when the current death penalty system was adopted by California voters, over 900 people have been sentenced to death for their crimes. Of them, only 13 have been executed. For the rest, the dysfunctional administration of California’s death penalty system has resulted, and will continue to result, in an inordinate and unpredictable period of delay preceding their actual execution. Indeed, for most, systemic delay has made their execution so unlikely that the death sentence carefully and deliberately imposed by the jury has been quietly transformed into one no rational jury or legislature could ever impose: life in prison, with the remote possibility of death. As for the random few for whom execution does become a reality, they will have languished for so long on Death Row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary. Because long delays are a feature of the capital punishment system in nearly every death penalty state, advocates on both sides are interested in the potential application of this argument in other jurisdictions. Commentary on the decision is available here at Sentencing Law and Policy, here at the Volokh Conspiracy, and here at Crime and Consequences. In other news: Kraken convicted. Greg Hardy, a defensive lineman for the Carolina [...]
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