IN JUNE, Justice Stephen Breyer called the entire American system of capital punishment into question. Rather than “try[ing] to patch up the death penalty’s legal wounds one at a time”, he wrote, what is needed is a “full briefing on a more basic question: whether the death penalty violates the constitution.”
In the Supreme Court term that began this month, there are a handful of death-penalty cases on the docket, but none will satisfy Justice Breyer’s wish. Each addresses potentially problematic features of a particular state’s scheme of sentencing criminals to death rather than the constitutionality of the punishment itself. On October 13th, in Hurst v Florida, the justices took a close look at the procedures whereby Florida continues to be one of the most enthusiastic killers of criminals in the country. Only Texas, Oklahoma and Virginia have executed more people since...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1Rb4NaD
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