Justice Stevens Blasts Capital Punishment

By Jeralyn, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Mon Aug 08, 2005 at 05:30:33 AM EST
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The American Bar Association is having its annual meeting in Chicago. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens spoke to the Group Saturday, and was sharply critical of the death penalty:

Stevens stopped short of calling for an end to the death penalty, but he said there are many problems in the way it is used. Stevens said DNA evidence has shown "that a substantial number of death sentences have been imposed erroneously. . . . It indicates that there must be serious flaws in our administration of criminal justice," he said.

It is death penalty cases, not abortion cases, that dominate the caseload of the Supreme Court.

In their last term, which ended in June, justices overturned the death sentences of four inmates, ruled that states cannot put to death killers who were not at least 18 years old at the time of the crime and held that it is unconstitutional to force defendants to appear before juries in chains during a trial's penalty phase.

Stevens was also critical of the death-qualifying jury selection process, the admission of victim-impact evidence and the lack of competent counsel in death cases.

He said Supreme Court cases have revealed that "a significant number of defendants in capital cases have not been provided with fully competent legal representation at trial." In addition, Stevens said he had reviewed records that showed "special risks of unfairness" in capital punishment.

Juries might not be balanced because people who have qualms about capital punishment can be excluded by prosecutors, he said. He questioned whether potential jurors are distracted by extensive questions about their death penalty views.

A statement from a victim's family, Stevens said, sometimes "serves no purpose other than to encourage jurors to decide in favor of death rather than life on the basis of their emotions rather than their reason."

Justice Stevens' comments could not come at a better time. With the confirmation hearings of Judge John Roberts less than a month away, it is critical that Senators question him on his views of the death penalty. There are four death cases on the Court's October calendar. Information released so far indicates Roberts has a hostile view towards death penalty appeals.

In 1992, Judge Roberts helped prepare a brief arguing that if a defendant was convicted in a fair trial, it was constitutional to execute him regardless of new e