Judicial override

In United States jurisprudence, a judicial override is when a judge overrules a jury's determination.

Use in capital cases

Only three U.S. states have allowed judicial overrides: Alabama, Delaware, and Florida. Delaware and Florida have cases in which the jury has imposed a death sentence and the judge has changed the ruling to life in prison. Alabama is unique in allowing judges to override a jury sentence of life in prison with capital punishment.[1] Florida abolished the override 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]

In 1995, the United States Supreme Court held, in an 8–1 decision, that the Eighth Amendment "does not require the State to define the weight the sentencing judge must give to an advisory jury verdict."[4][5] The Court had been asked to impose Florida's "great weight" standard on Alabama, but Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said that doing so would amount to micromanagement.[6] The Supreme Court declined to take up a case reviewing Alabama's use of judicial overrides in 2013[7] and again in 2015.[8] Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor dissented the 2013 decision to decline to rehear the issue. Justice Sotomayor suggested that the elected nature of Alabama's judges is the underlying issue, with a study showing that death sentences are imposed more in election years.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Judge Override | Equal Justice Initiative". Equal Justice Initiative. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  2. ↑ "Alabama Abolishes Judge Override in Death Penalty Cases". Equal Justice Initiative. 2017-04-04. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  3. ↑ "Top court: Delaware's death penalty law unconstitutional". Delawareonline. 2016-08-02. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  4. ↑ "Justice Sotomayor: Alabama Judges' Death Penalty Sentencing Is Tainted By Election Politics | ThinkProgress". Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  5. ↑ "Harris v. Alabama". Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  6. ↑ Paige Williams. "Double Jeopardy". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  7. ↑ "Justices May Review Capital Cases in Which Judges Overrode Juries". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  8. ↑ "U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear death row inmates' appeals in Auburn and Franklin County cases | AL.com". Alabama Media Group. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  9. ↑ "Elected judges harder on death penalty appeals, Reuters finds". Reuters. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
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