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Crimes Punishable by the Death Penalty

Leading Law Group Withdraws Model Death Penalty Laws Because System is Unfixable

Posted: October 26, 2009
in

The Council of the American Law Institute (ALI) recently voted to withdraw a section of its Model Penal Code concerned with capital punishment because of the "current intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a minimally adequate system for administering capital punishment."  The Council based its decision on a study it commissioned to look into the practice of the death penalty since the recommendations were made in the Model Penal Code.  The recommendations for how to make the death penalty less arbitrary had been adopted in 1962 and were cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1976 opinion allowing a reformed death penalty to be reinstated.  Section §210.6  of the Code defines cases appropriate for capital punishment, aggravating and mitigating circumstances, and special sentencing procedures, and was intended to meet significant concerns regarding the practice.  This move essentially withdraws ALI from any attempt to fashion an acceptable death penalty because the system has proven to be unworkable.

U.S. Supreme Court Denies Rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana Opinion

Posted: October 01, 2008
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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.

Federal Judge Sharply Criticizes Texas System in Ordering Stay of Execution

Posted: August 21, 2008
in

Jeff Wood’s execution was stayed with only hours remaining by U.S. District Court Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio. The judge chastised the Texas courts for their refusal last week to hire mental health experts to determine whether Wood (pictured) was insane or appoint a lawyer to represent him for a competency hearing.

U.S. to Seek Death Penalty under New Military Commissions

Posted: February 11, 2008
in

The U.S. government has decided to seek the death penalty against six Guantánamo detainees who are accused of having central roles in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The defendants will be tried before Military Commissions, which are neither part of the federal criminal justice system nor the military's justice system for its own members.

Crimes Punishable by the Death Penalty News and Developments - Previous Years

Posted: January 08, 2008
in

Crimes Punishable by the Death Penalty News and Developments: 2007

Posted: January 08, 2008
in
Supreme Court Asked to Review Unusual Death Sentence Attorneys for Patrick Kennedy, the only person on death row in the U.S. for a non-homicide offense, have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether a death sentence for a crime where the victim was not murdered is constitutional. Kennedy was convicted of raping his 8-year-old step-daughter in Louisiana in 1998.

Those Executed Who Did Not Directly Kill the Victim

Posted: January 03, 2008
in

Everyone who has been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 participated in a crime in which at least one victim died. In most cases, the person executed directly killed the victim. In a small minority of cases, the person executed ordered or contracted with another person to carry out the murder. In another group of cases, the person executed participated in a felony during which a victim died at the hands of another participant in the felony.

Supreme Court Asked to Review Unusual Death Sentence

Posted: September 13, 2007
in
Attorneys for Patrick Kennedy, the only person on death row in the U.S. for a non-homicide offense, have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether a death sentence for a crime where the victim was not murdered is constitutional. Kennedy was convicted of raping his 8-year-old step-daughter in Louisiana in 1998. Only a handful of states have laws that would allow a death sentence for such a crime. No one has been executed for a non-homicide offense since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and Kennedy is the only person under a death sentence for such an offense.

EDITORIALS: Death Penalty for Rape Would "Compound the Error"

Posted: June 07, 2007
in

In a recent editorial, the Los Angeles Times voiced concerns about a Louisiana Supreme Court decision upholding the death sentence of Patrick Kennedy for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter. The paper said the Louisiana court's decision to allow the death penalty in such cases could lead states to seek the death penalty for other non-murder crimes, a development that would worsen an already dysfunctional death penalty system. The editorial noted:

AGGRAVATING FACTORS FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT BY STATE

Posted: June 06, 2007
in

Sources:
Jeffrey Kirchmeier, "Aggravating and Mitigating Factors: The Paradox of Today's Arbitrary and Mandatory Capital Punishment Scheme," 6 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 345 (1998).

Jeffrey Kirchmeier, "Casting a Wider Net: Another Decade of Legislative Expansion of the Death Penalty in the United States," 34 Pepperdine Law Review 1 (2006).


Alabama-
(1)The murder was especially heinous, atrocious, cruel, or depraved (or involved torture)

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