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posted by takyon on Sunday December 11 2016, @05:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the deathlock dept.

An Alabama inmate was put to death by lethal injection on Thursday after a deadlocked Supreme Court refused to stay his execution, The Associated Press reported. The inmate, Ronald B. Smith, had been sentenced to death by a judge despite a jury's recommendation of life without parole.

Mr. Smith was convicted in 1995 of murdering Casey Wilson, a convenience store clerk, the previous year. By a vote of 7 to 5, the jury rejected the death penalty and recommended a sentence of life without parole. The judge overrode that recommendation, sentencing Mr. Smith to death.

[...] In January, the Supreme Court struck down Florida's capital sentencing system, which also allowed judicial overrides of jury recommendations of life sentences. "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death,"

Should judges be allowed to overrule a jury's decision for sentencing?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/us/politics/alabama-ronald-bert-smith-execution-supreme-court.html?0p19G=c&_r=0


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 12 2016, @01:03AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 12 2016, @01:03AM (#440147) Journal

    You're confusing me with some other asshole. I don't give a damn about the Jews. I don't love 'em, I don't hate 'em. I worked with some I liked, I worked with some I don't like. Pretty much the same as white people, or black people, or latinos, or whatever.

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