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News
Supreme Court News Resources
Supreme Court News Stories from 2008
- About
Broken Links
- Supreme
Court Rejects Appeals, Including Mumia
Abu-Jamal's
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected more than
2,000 pending appeals Monday, including a
request to grant a new trial for former Black
Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted
of killing a Philadelphia police officer
27 years ago. ... Other noteworthy appeals
the court denied came in a lengthy orders
list, which offered no specific explanation
for why the justices refused to intervene.
... Lucero v. Texas (07-1429) - A death row
inmate wants a new trial after the jury foreman
read Bible passages during deliberations
to persuade holdouts to impose capital punishment.(10/7/08,
CNN.com)
- U.S. Supreme Court Denies Rehearing in
Kennedy v. Louisiana Opinion
On October 1, the U.S. Supreme Court denied
Louisiana's request for a rehearing of the
Court's ruling striking down the death penalty
for non-homicidal offenses against individuals.
Louisiana contended that a recent adjustment
to military law that continued to allow the
death penalty for child rape should have
been taken into account by the Court, resulting
in a different opinion. The Court slightly
modified both the majority and dissenting
opinions to include reference to the military
code. The Court issued a statement, leaving
intact its decision not only reversing Patrick
Kennedy's death sentence for child rape,
but also holding that the death penalty would
be disproportionate for any crime against
an individual in which the victim is not
killed. (10/6/08, DPIC Update)
- U.S.
Supreme Court Stays Troy Davis Execution
The U.S. Supreme Court granted a last-minute
reprieve to a Georgia man, Troy
Davis, fewer than two hours before
he was to be executed for the 1989 slaying
of an off-duty police officer. ... Davis
said "everyone should pray" for
the slain officer's family. The 39-year-old
also said that he is "very grateful
for everything that everyone is doing" for
him and that he would "accept" whatever
decision the Supreme Court rendered in
the coming days about his case. (9/23/08,
CNN.com)
- Upcoming
Supreme Court Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court will return to
hear oral arguments in its new term on
October 6. To date, the Court has granted
certiorari in (agreed to hear) three
death penalty cases. Bell v. Kelly will
be argued on November 12, 2008. This
case originated in Virginia and concerns
the scope of federal review when the
state court has failed to develop an
issue. Edward Bell claimed that his attorney
failed to present important mitigating
evidence at this sentence hearing, but
this claim was not fully explored in
state court. (9/15/08, DPIC Update)
- Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Two Death
Penalty Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on June 24
to hear two death penalty cases, both from
Tennessee. The first case, Cone v. Bell,
No. 07-1114, focuses on whether federal
courts can consider issues that state courts
dismissed on state procedural grounds.
The petitioner, Gary Cone, had claimed
that his use of drugs mitigated his guilt
in the underlying murder of which he was
accused. The prosecution at trial denied
that there was any evidence of the defendant's
drug use, and Cone was sentenced to death.
It was shown later that the district attorney’s files contained
evidence confirming Cone's extensive drug
problem, and Cone maintains that such evidence
should have been released to the defense
in discovery. ... The second case, Harbison
v. Bell, No. 07-8521, asks whether a federal
law that provides lawyers to indigent state
death row inmates for parts of their appeal
guarantees them the continuation of that
representation through the state clemency
process. The law, part of the Terrorist Death
Penalty Enhancement Act of 2005, says that
such lawyers are to represent their clients
in "all available post-conviction process," including "proceedings
for executive or other clemency." Federal
appeals courts have been divided over the
interpretation of the law, with one side
saying that the law applies only to federal
clemency proceedings. (6/30/08, DPIC Update)
- Child Rapists Can't Be Executed, Supreme
Court Rules
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled
5-4 Wednesday that child rapists cannot
be executed, concluding that capital punishment
for crimes against individuals can be applied
only to murderers. The ruling stemmed from
the case of Patrick Kennedy, who appealed
the 2003 death sentence he received in
Louisiana after being convicted of raping
his 8-year-old stepdaughter. Justice Anthony
Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion that
execution in this case would violate the
Eighth Amendment's prohibition against
cruel and unusual punishment, citing "evolving
standards of decency" in the United
States. Such standards, the justice wrote,
forbid capital punishment for any crime
against an individual other than murder. "We
conclude that, in determining whether the
death penalty is excessive, there is a
distinction between intentional first-degree
murder on the one hand and nonhomicide
crimes against individual persons, even
including child rape, on the other," wrote
Kennedy, who is not related to the convicted
rapist. (6/25/08, CNN.com)
- Supreme
Court Rejects Lethal Injection Challenge
The
Supreme Court has upheld the three-drug
lethal injection method used by the state
of Kentucky in a 7-2 decision, clearing
the way for an unofficial moratorium
on executions to be lifted. "Some
risk of pain is inherent in any method
of execution no matter how humane - if
only from the prospect of error in following
the required procedure," Chief Justice
John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. "It
is clear, then, that the Constitution
does not demand the avoidance of all
risk of pain in carrying out executions." ...
As for what's next, Richard Dieter, who
runs the Death Penalty Information Center,
a group opposed to the capital punishment,
said he believes that "quite
a few [execution] dates will be set -
testing whether their states meets the
same standard that the court found acceptable
in Kentucky." (4/16/08, ABC News.com)
- High Court Justice Wants End to Executions
Justice John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court's
most senior member, took aim at the entire
system of capital punishment Wednesday,
writing in an opinion that it was a "pointless
and needless extinction of life with only
marginal contributions to any discernible
social or public purposes."... In essence,
Stevens has sent a signal that, while he
recognizes the court has, in the past, found
the death penalty to be constitutional, he
thinks it's now time for state legislatures,
Congress and the courts to reconsider. (4/16/08,
ABC News.com)
- High Court Split Over Execution of Child
Rapists
The Supreme Court focused Wednesday
on whether "evolving standards of
decency" in
the United States forbid a resumption of
capital punishment for any felony but murder.
But the justices offered no clear indication
of how they will rule in the case of a
man who is on Louisiana death row for raping
a child. (4/16/08, CNN.com)
- Supreme Court Overrules Bush, OKs Texas
Execution
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court
has concluded Texas can execute a Mexican
man sentenced to death for murder, ending
an unusual capital appeal that pitted President
Bush against his home state in a dispute
over federal authority, local sovereignty
and foreign treaties. The 6-3 vote Tuesday
means the pending execution of Jose Ernesto
Medellin can proceed. He faces lethal injection
for two brutal slayings. ... The Mexican
government filed an appeal against the
United States with the International Court
of Justice in January 2003, alleging violations
of international law. Medellin filed his
own federal and state appeals based on
similar complaints as well as a claim of
ineffective counsel. Medellin has the support
of the European Union and several international
human rights groups. The ICJ ruled in 2004
the United States had violated the rights
of the Mexican prisoners, in part because
officials and prosecutors failed to notify
their home countries, which could have
provided legal and other assistance. (3/25/08,
CNN.com)
- Court Divided Over Lethal Injection Case
Supreme Court justices indicated Monday
they are deeply divided over a challenge
to the way most states execute prisoners
by lethal injection, which critics say
creates an avoidable risk of excruciating
pain. With executions in the United States
halted since late September, the court
heard arguments in a case from Kentucky
that calls into question the mix of three
drugs used in most executions. Justice
Antonin Scalia was among several conservatives
on the court who suggested he would uphold
Kentucky's method of execution and allow
capital punishment to resume. (1/7/08,
ABC News)
- Lethal Injection Goes Before Supreme
Court
Death-row inmates are asking the Supreme
Court to order states to use different drugs
or tighten their procedures to reduce the
risk that prisoners will suffer excruciating
pain during their executions. The justices
are hearing arguments Monday morning in a
case that challenges Kentucky's method of
executing prisoners using a three-drug cocktail.
Three dozen states use similar procedures.
The court's decision to step into the case
has brought about a halt in executions that
is likely to last at least until the summer.
(1/7/08, CNN.com)
- Supreme
Court to Hear Child Rapist Case
Patrick Kennedy's legal team wants the
court to declare Louisiana's law allowing
the death penalty for child rape unconstitutional.
Only two people in the United States are
on death row for nonhomicide offenses,
and both are in that state. Some unusual
allies have filed briefs supporting Kennedy's
case: victims' rights organizations. The
groups contend that supporting a death
penalty law in such cases could carry terrible
consequences, such as encouraging rapists
to kill their victims. (1/4/08, ABC News)
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