The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a ruling that overturned the death sentence for a murderer from California because the prosecutor told jurors that God sanctioned the death penalty for evil people.
Well, yes, I should think they would let that ruling stand. I dare say that, depending on how California law works, they may just redo the sentencing phase; then again, if their law works such that the trial jury has to also be the sentencing jury, they maybe up a creek -- the only thing they could do is retry the case, in which case they'll probably move it to life without parole to avoid the trial.
Though that does bring up the question: what is it that jurors actually think they're doing when they decide to sentence someone to death? I don't imagine that most jurors in that trial really thought, "This is what god wants us to do," but what were they actually thinking?
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
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Archives before February 5, 2001
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12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!