Death sentences by judges: Should they be thrown out?

Two years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled in an Arizona death-penalty case that juries, not judges, must make the decision about whether a convicted murderer should be subjected to capital punishment.

The ruling reversed the sentence of death-row inmate Timothy Ring, and it prompted a number of states to rewrite their capital sentencing procedures to involve juries rather than judges in all pending and future cases.

But the Ring case left open a thorny question. If Mr. Ring's death sentence was meted out in violation of constitutional principles, what about scores of other inmates sentenced to die under similar circumstances? Should their sentences be reversed too?

Monday, the justices take up a second Arizona case to decide whether the court's 2002 decision in the Ring case should be applied retroactively. If a majority of justices answer yes, their ruling could invalidate every death sentence in the US handed down by a judge rather than a jury.

The case has potential implications for 86 death-row inmates in Arizona, 14 in Idaho, 12 in Nevada, five in Nebraska, and four in Montana. If the high court issues a particularly broad ruling mandating mass resentencings, the case could also affect death-row inmates in Florida, Alabama, Delaware, and Indiana. Some analysts warn that any ruling supporting retroactive application of Ring would trigger constitutional challenges to a wide range of noncapital sentences determined by judges rather than juries, including federal sentencing guidelines.

The case, Schriro v. Summerlin, is not about whether convicted murderers should be set free. Rather, the issue is whether they must be afforded a new sentencing hearing to allow a jury rather than a judge to decide whether they should be put to death or locked away in prison.

"What it comes down to is fairness," says Dale Baich of the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix, which is representing Arizona death-row inmate Warren Wesley Summerlin. "Do you allow some individuals on death row to get the benefit of the Ring decision, and not allow others to get that benefit?"

Arizona prosecutors have a different view. "Is it fair for the state and society to go through another sentencing when they relied on existing law and did it correctly [the first time]?" says John Pressley Todd, Arizona assistant attorney general. Mr. Todd says that even if Mr. Summerlin is afforded a new sentencing hearing, it is unlikely that any jury would reach a result different from the death sentence issued by the judge.

Summerlin was convicted of raping and bludgeoning to death a bill collector, Brenna Bailey, who came to his home in April 1981. Her body was discovered a day later wrapped in a bedsheet in the trunk of her car. Summerlin's wife identified the bedsheet as having come from the Summerlin home.

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