After Ring
10 Pages Posted: 2 Nov 2005
Abstract
This article essays a brief survey of the likely impact of the Supreme Court's decision in Ring v. Arizona, which overturned most judicial death-sentencing procedures as violative of the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. Among the more dramatic and immediate effects of the case was a decision by a federal district court ruling the Federal Death Penalty Act unconstitutional on its face (United States v. Fell, since reversed on appeal). After first evaluating the merits of the Fell decision and other potential Ring-based objections to the Federal Death Penalty Act, the article concludes with some observations on the impact of the Ring/Apprendi line of cases on the Supreme Court's Eighth Amendment capital jurisprudence more generally, and suggests ways in which the potential conflicts that emerge cast light on Apprendi and its progeny as well.
Keywords: capital punishment, death penalty, federal death penalty, Ring, Apprendi, sentencing
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