The eyes and the hopes of the anti-death penalty community will be on the Supreme Court April 22. For the first time in years, the justices will take up a case that holds serious promise of reversing hundreds of death sentences on constitutional grounds.
At hand is Ring v. Arizona, No. 01-488. The justices are being asked to apply to death sentences the rule it set out in the 2000 decision Apprendi v. New Jersey, which requires that juries, not judges, determine any facts that can lengthen a criminal sentence. If the Court goes along, as many as 800 cases from nine states that give judges a role in capital sentencing could be put into play. Even the federal death penalty could be affected, some say.
