I thru VIII discuss this capital jurisprudence and why a constitutional death or LWOP sentence is impossible under current capital sentencing scheme. A substantial body of research conducted over the past two and a half decades exists which examines how the death penalty statutes are applied by jurors. Most of this data comes from actual capital jurors through the Capital Jury Project In Section IX, the constitutional mandates of the U.S. Supreme Court are outlined and discussed in light of the jury research which persuasively demonstrates that capital jurors are not applying capital sentencing statutes in a manner consistent the relevant statutes, or the state and federal constitutions. I. The Death Penalty is Imposed Arbitrarily and Capriciously, with an Inappropriately High Risk of Discrimination and Mistake, in Violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Art. I §§ 16 & 18 of the Indiana Constitution. In 1973, the Supreme Trial struck down the various death penalty schemes then in existence. Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972). The decision was 5-4 and each justice wrote an opinion. The freakish nature in which the death penalty was being applied by the states was a driving force behind the Furman decision. Justice Brennan described it in this manner; When the punishment of trial is inflicted in a trivial number of the cases in which it is legally available, the conclusion is virtually inescapable that it is being inflicted arbitrarily. Indeed it smacks of
I thru VIII discuss this capital jurisprudence and why a constitutional death or LWOP sentence is impossible under current capital sentencing scheme. A substantial body of research conducted over the past two and a half decades exists which examines how the death penalty statutes are applied by jurors. Most of this data comes from actual capital jurors through the Capital Jury Project In Section IX, the constitutional mandates of the U.S. Supreme Court are outlined and discussed in light of the jury research which persuasively demonstrates that capital jurors are not applying capital sentencing statutes in a manner consistent the relevant statutes, or the state and federal constitutions. I. The Death Penalty is Imposed Arbitrarily and Capriciously, with an Inappropriately High Risk of Discrimination and Mistake, in Violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Art. I §§ 16 & 18 of the Indiana Constitution. In 1973, the Supreme struck down the various death penalty schemes then in existence. Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972). The decision was 5-4 and each justice wrote an opinion. The freakish nature in which the death penalty was being applied by the states was a driving force behind the Furman decision. Justice Brennan described it in this manner; When the punishment of is inflicted in a trivial number of the cases in which it is legally available, the conclusion is virtually inescapable that it is being inflicted arbitrarily. Indeed it smacks of trial Trial
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