Justices Debate Death Penalty Issues in Dissents from Cert Denials
The Supreme Court’s rejection of a cert petition in death penalty cases doesn’t always end the justices’ debate.
Sometimes the decision to deny cert draws dissents from justices, both liberal and conservative, the Washington Post reports.
Last week Justice Antonin Scalia objected when the court refused to review a decision overturning the death penalty for Alabama inmate James Lawhorn, the story says. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had overturned the sentence because Lawhorn’s lawyer had not made a closing argument during the penalty phase of the trial.
Scalia’s dissent (PDF) from the cert denial was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. Scalia called the 11th Circuit decision “patently wrong” and said it was “not remotely required by clearly established Supreme Court precedent.” By not taking the case, Scalia said, “we invite continued lawlessness.”
On the other side of the debate is Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who joined with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg earlier this month to object when the Supreme Court let stand a decision affirming the death penalty for an inmate whose lawyer offered only one witness in the penalty phase. The witness testified that life on death row was more pleasant than in the general prison population. “Not surprisingly, the jury unanimously recommended a death sentence,” Sotomayor wrote (PDF).
