Judicial override
In the United States and other nations that use
overrules a jury's sentencing determination.Use in capital cases
Only four U.S. states have allowed judicial overrides: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, and Indiana. Indiana abolished it in 2002,[1] Florida in 2016, and Alabama in 2017.[2] In 2016, the Delaware Supreme Court declared the state's death penalty law unconstitutional due to the override.[3]
Researchers who analyzed survey data from thousands of capital jurors found that "residual doubt" about the person's guilt was the most significant reason jurors voted for a life sentence instead of the death penalty. This could suggest that life-to-death overrides have a higher likelihood of resulting in a wrongful conviction.[4]
Florida
Florida was the first state to adopt an override statute in the 1970s, after the
In January 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a part of Florida's capital sentencing scheme in Hurst v. Florida. The Court held that "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death. A jury’s mere recommendation is not enough." In March 2016, the state legislature abolished the judicial override.[7]
Indiana
Indiana followed Florida in 1977 and enacted a similar death penalty scheme in which the jury's sentence recommendation was not binding. There were no directions on when the judge could override the jury's life sentence until 1989, when the Indiana Supreme Court held that the override was permitted only when "virtually no reasonable person could disagree that death was appropriate." All ten death sentences imposed by override in Indiana were later vacated in appellate courts. In 2002, the override was abolished, and the courts were left with an option to determine the sentence only when the jury's recommendation was not unanimous.[8]
Alabama
In Alabama, judges had no restrictions on when they could override a jury's recommendation of a life sentence.[8] Judicial overrides amounted to more than 20 percent of all death sentences between 1981 and 2015 (101 out of 413), and half of exonerations due to innocence (3 out of 6).[4]
In 1995, the
In April 2017, the Alabama legislature passed a bill that abolished judicial override prospectively.[15]
Delaware
Delaware enacted an override statute in November 1991 after a jury had given four perpetrators life sentences for murdering two guards during an armed robbery. The life-to-death override was used on only one defendant, whose sentence was appealed and ultimately changed to a life verdict. Instead, the override was used multiple times to override a death sentence recommended by the jury.
In August 2016, the
See also
- Capital punishment in Alabama
- Capital punishment in Florida
- Capital punishment in Delaware
- Capital punishment in Indiana
- Judgment notwithstanding verdict
References
- ^ a b "The Peath penalty in Alabama: Judge Override" (PDF). Equal Justice Initiative. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
- ^ "Alabama Abolishes Judge Override in Death Penalty Cases". Equal Justice Initiative. 2017-04-04. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
- ^ "Top court: Delaware's death penalty law unconstitutional". Delawareonline. 2016-08-02. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
- ^ a b c Mulvaney, Patrick; Chamblee, Katherine (2016-08-08). "Innocence and Override". Yalelawjournal.org. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ^ Wheeling, Kate (2017-09-15). "Why Is the Death Penalty So Popular in Alabama?". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
- ^ "Tedder v. State". Justia Law. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ^ "Hurst v. Florida". Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
- ^ a b Radelet, Michael L. "Overriding jury sentencing recommendations in Florida capital cases: An update and possible half-requiem" (PDF). Michigan State Law Review. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
- ^ "Justice Sotomayor: Alabama Judges' Death Penalty Sentencing Is Tainted By Election Politics | ThinkProgress". ThinkProgress. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
- ^ "Harris v. Alabama". Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
- ^ Paige Williams. "Double Jeopardy". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
- ^ Liptak, Adam (9 March 2015). "Justices May Review Capital Cases in Which Judges Overrode Juries". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
- Alabama Media Group. 21 April 2015. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
- ^ "Elected judges harder on death penalty appeals, Reuters finds". Reuters. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
- ^ "Gov. Kay Ivey signs jury override bill into law". Al.com. 2017-04-11. Retrieved 2020-01-05.