A deeply split Supreme Court in Uttecht v. Brown reversed the Ninth Circuit on the issue of juror death qualification. The ruling grows out of the murder trial of Cal Coburn Brown, who was convicted and sentenced to death for first degree murder. Brown was prosecuted for raping and torturing a woman for two days before killing her and dumping her body in a parking lot. During jury selection, one potential member of the panel — his name was Richard Deal, although the Supreme Court refers to him throughout only as “Juror Z” — repeatedly said that he could impose the death penalty in circumstances that he thought appropriate. But some of his answers (recounted in an appendix to the majority opinion) show some misunderstanding of Washington state law on punishment for murder, and some ambiguity about just when Mr. Deal would be willing to vote for a death sentence.
The Supreme Court granted cert this Term in nine capital cases. One of the nine remains to be decided (Medellin). The Court ruled in favor of death four times (Ayers, Schriro, Lawrence, Uttecht) and in favor of the defendant four times (Abdul-Kabir, Brewer, Smith, Weaver). Only one case was not decided by how Justice Kennedy aligned himself (Weaver). Justice Kennedy’s vote, to repeat the obvious, governs the Court’s capital jurisprudence. He doesn’t seem to be in favor of dismantling it, but rather slowly modifying it.
We say move faster--we're waiting for you.
