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Sharon Keller, Troy Davis, and the Duty of a Death Case Judge

That's the title of Steve Sheppard's FindLaw commentary, posted today. Sheppard is the Judge Enfield Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law. He's also the author of I Do Solemnly Swear: The Moral Obligations of Legal Officials. LINKNo obligation of a judge is more awful than to rule on who should live and who should die at the hands of the state. No process more defines the American legal system: We put our worst criminals to death, but we do so while protecting rights under the law. Though the jury's sentence is the fulcrum of every decision, no person may die without a legislative decree that their conduct deserves death, and without judicial approval of the conviction and the sentence.Many judges grow weary and callous from the endless claims of America's three thousand death-row inmates, of whom a dozen are yet scheduled to die in 2009...continue to full post

Full post as published by Lethal Injection on August 25, 2009 (boomark / email).