Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This сase concerns the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial in capital prosecutions. In Arizona, following a jury adjudication of a defendant’s guilt of first-degree murder, the trial judge, sitting alone, determines the presence or absence of the aggravating factors required by Arizona law for imposition of the death penalty.
In Walton v. Arizona,
Apprendi's reasoning is irreconcilable with Walton’s holding in this regard, and today we overrule Walton in relevant part. Capital defendants, no less than noncapital defendants, we conclude, are entitled to a jury determination of any fact on which the legislature conditions an increase in their maximum punishment.
I
At the trial of petitioner Timothy Ring for murder, armed robbery, and related charges, the prosecutor presented evidence sufficient to permit the jury to find the facts here recounted. On November 28, 1994, a Wells Fargo armored van pulled up to the Dillard’s department store at Arrowhead Mall in Glendale, Arizona. Tr. 57, 60-61 (Nov. 14, 1996). Courier Dave Moss left the van to pick up money inside the store. Id., at 61, 73-74. When he returned, the van, and its driver, John Magoch, were gone. Id., at 61-62.
Later that day, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputies found the van — its doors locked and its engine running — in the parking lot of a church in Sun City, Arizona. Id., at 99-100 (Nov. 13,1996). Inside the vehicle they found Magoch, dead from a single gunshot to the head. Id., at 101. According to Wells Fargo records, more than $562,000 in cash and $271,000 in checks were missing from the van. Id., at 10 (Nov. 18, 1996).
Prompted by an informant’s tip, Glendale police sought to determine whether Ring and his friend James Greenham were involved in the robbery. The police investigation revealed that the two had made several expensive cash purchases in December 1994 and early 1995. E. g., id., at 153-156 (Nov. 14, 1996); id., at 90-94 (Nov. 21, 1996). Wiretaps
In one recorded phone conversation, Ring told Ferguson that Ring might “сu[t] off” Greenham because “[h]e’s too much of a risk”: Greenham had indiscreetly flaunted a new truck in front of his ex-wife. State’s Exh. 49A, pp. 11-12. Ring said he could cut off his associate because he held “both [Greenham’s] and mine.” Id., at 11. The police engineered a local news broadcast about the robbery investigation; they included in the account several intentional inaccuracies. Tr. 3-5, 13-14 (Nov. 19, 1996). On hearing the broadcast report, Ring left a message on Greenham’s answering machine to “remind me to talk to you tomorrow and tell you about what was on the news tonight. Very important, and also fairly good.” State’s Exh. 55A, p. 2.
After a detective left a note on Greenham’s door asking him to call, Tr. 115-118 (Nov. 18, 1996), Ring told Ferguson that he was puzzled by the attention the police trained on Greenham. “[H]is house is clean,” Ring said; “[m]ine, on the other hand, contains a very large bag.” State’s Exh. 70A, p. 7.
On February 14, 1995, police furnished a staged reenactment of the robbery to the local news, and again included deliberate inaccuracies. Tr. 5 (Nov. 19, 1996). Ferguson told Ring that he “laughed” when he saw the broadcast, and Ring called it “humorous.” State’s Exh. 80A, p. 3. Ferguson said he was “not real worried at all now”; Ring, however, said he was “slightly concerned]” about the possibility that the police might eventually ask for hair samples. Id., at 3-4.
Two days later, the police executed a search warrant at Ring’s house, discovering a duffel bag in his garage containing more than $271,000 in cash. Tr. 107-108, 111, 125 (Nov. 20, 1996). They also found a note with the number “575, 995” on it, followed by the word “splits” and the letters “F,” “Y,” and “T.” Id., at 127-130. The prosecution asserted
Testifying in his own defense, Ring said the money seized at his house was startup capital for a construction company he and Greenham were planning to form. Id., at 10-11 (Dec. 3,1996). Ring testified that he made his share of the money as a confidential informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and as a bail bondsman and gunsmith. Id., at 162, 166-167, 180 (Dec. 2,1996). But an FBI agent testified that Ring had been paid only $458, id., at 47 (Nov. 20, 1996), and other evidence showed that Ring had made no more than $8,800 as a bail bondsman, id., at 48-51 (Nov. 21, 1996); id., at 21 (Nov. 25, 1996).
The trial judge instructed the jury on alternative charges of premeditated murder and felony murder. The jury deadlocked on premeditated murder, with 6 of 12 jurors voting to acquit, but convicted Ring of felony murder occurring in the course of armed robbery. See Ariz. Rev. Stаt. Ann. §§ 13-1105(A) and (B) (West 2001) (“A person commits first degree murder if... [ajcting either alone or with one or more other persons the person commits or attempts to commit. . . [one of several enumerated felonies] . . . and in the course of and in furtherance of the offense or immediate flight from the offense, the person or another person causes the death of any person. . . . Homicide, as prescribed in [this provision] requires no specific mental state other than what is required for the commission of any of the enumerated felonies.”).
As later summed up by the Arizona Supreme Court, “the evidence admitted at trial failed to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that [Ring] was a major participant in the armed robbery or that he actually murdered Magoeh.”
Under Arizona law, Ring could riot be sentenced to death, the statutory maximum penalty for first-degree murder, unless further findings were made. The State’s first-degree murder statute prescribes that the offense “is punishable by death or life imprisonment as provided by § 13-703.” Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13-1105(0 (West 2001). The cross-referenced section, § 13-703, directs the judge who presided at trial to “conduct a separate sentencing hearing to determine the existence or nonexistence of [certain enumerated] circumstances . . . for the purpose of determining the sentence to be imposed.” § 13-703(C) (West Supp. 2001). The statute further instructs: “The hearing shall be conducted before the court alone. The court alone shall make all factual determinations required by this section or the constitution of the United States or this state.” Ibid.
At the conclusion of the sentencing hearing, the judge is to determine the presence or absence of the enumerated “aggravating circumstances”
Between Ring’s trial and sentencing hearing, Greenham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed robbery. He stipulated to a 27
Called by the prosecution at Ring’s sentencing hearing, Greenham testified that he, Ring, and Ferguson had been planning the robbery for several weeks before it occurred. According to Greenham, Ring “had I guess taken the role as leader because he laid out all the tactics.” Id., at 39. On the day of the robbery, Greenham said, the three watched the armored van pull up to the mall. Id., at 45. When Magoch opened the door to smoke a cigarette, Ring shot him with a rifle equipped with a homemade silencer. Id., at 42, 44-45. Greenham then pushed Magoch’s body aside and drove the van away. Id., at 45. At Ring’s direction, Greenham drove to the church parking lot, where he and Ring transferred the money to Ring’s truck. Id., at 46,48. Later, Greenham recalled, as the three robbers were dividing up the money,
On cross-examination, Greenham acknowledged having previously told Ring’s counsel that Ring had nothing to do with the planning or execution of the robbery. Id., at 85-87. Greenham explained that he had made that prior statement only because Ring had threatened his life. Id., at 87. Greenham also acknowledged that he was now testifying against Ring as “pay back” for the threats and for Ring’s interference in Greenham’s relationship with Greenham's ex-wife. Id., at 90-92.
On October 29, 1997, the trial judge entered his “Special Verdict” sentencing Ring to death. Because Ring was convicted of felony murder, not premeditated murder, the judge recognized that Ring was eligible for the death penalty only if he was Magoch’s actual killer or if he was “a major participant in the armed robbery that led to the killing and exhibited a reckless disregard or indifference for human life.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 46a-47a; see Enmund v. Florida,
Citing Greenham’s testimony at the sentencing hearing, the judge concluded that Ring “is the one who shot and killed Mr. Magoeh.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 47a. The judge also found that Ring was a major participant in the robbery and that armed robbery “is unquestionably a crime which carries with it a grave risk of death.” Ibid.
The judge then turned to the determination of aggravating and mitigating circumstances. See § 13-703. He found two aggravating factors. First, the judge determined that Ring committed the offense in expectation of receiving something
On appeal, Ring argued that Arizona’s capital sentencing scheme violates the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution because it entrusts to a judge the finding of a fact raising the defendant’s maximum penalty. See Jones v. United States,
Reviewing the death sentence, the Arizona Supreme Court made two preliminary observations. Apprendi and Jones, the Arizona high court said, “raise some question about the continued viability of Walton.”
After reciting this Court’s divergent constructions of Arizona law in Apprendi, the Arizona Supreme Court described how capital sentencing in fact works in the State. The Arizona high court concluded that “the present case is precisely as described in Justice O’Connor’s dissent [in Apprendi]— Defendant’s death sentence required the judge’s factual findings.”
The court agreed with Ring that the evidence was insufficient to support the aggravating circumstance of depravity, id., at 281-282,
We granted Ring’s petition for a writ of certiorari,
II
Based solely on the jury’s verdict finding Ring guilty of first-degree felony murder, the maximum punishment he could have received was life imprisonment. See
Walton drew support from Cabana v. Bullock,
In dissent in Walton, Justice Stevens urged that the Sixth Amendment requires “a jury determination of facts that must be established before the death penalty may be imposed.” Id., at 709. Aggravators “operate as statutory ‘elements’ of capital murder under Arizona law,” he reasoned, “because in their absence, [the death] sentence is unavailable.” Id., at 709, n. 1. “If th[e] question had been posed in 1791, when the Sixth Amendment became law,” JUSTICE Stevens Said, “the answer would have been clear,” for “[b]y that time,
“the English jury’s role in determining critical facts in homicide cases was entrenched. As fact-finder, the jury had the power to determine not only whether the defendant was guilty of homicide but also the degree of the offense. Moreover, the jury’s role in finding facts that would determine a homicide defendant’s eligibility for capital punishment was particularly well established. Throughout its history, the jury determined which homicide defendants would be subject to capital punishment by making factual determinations, many of which related to difficult assessments of the defendant’s state of mind. By the time the Bill of Rights was adopted, the jury’s right to make these determinations was unquestioned.” Id., at 710-711 (quoting White, Fact-Finding and the Death Penalty: The Scope of a Capital Defendant’s Right to Jury Trial, 65 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1, 10-11 (1989)).
The carjacking statute, we recognized, was “susceptible of [both] constructions”; we adopted the one that avoided “grave and doubtful constitutional questions.” Id., at 239 (quoting United States ex rel. Attorney General v. Delaware & Hudson Co.,
Jones endeavored to distinguish certain capital sentencing decisions, including Walton. Advancing a “careful reading of Walton’s rationale,” the Jones Court said: Walton “charac
Dissenting in Jones, Justice Kennedy questioned the Court’s account of Walton. The aggravating factors at issue in Walton, he suggested, wеre not merely circumstances for consideration by the trial judge in exercising sentencing discretion within a statutory range of penalties. “Under the relevant Arizona statute,” Justice Kennedy observed, “Walton could not have been sentenced to death unless the trial judge found at least one of the enumerated aggravating factors. Absent such a finding, the maximum potential punishment provided by law was a term of imprisonment.”
“If it is constitutionally impermissible to allow a judge’s finding to increase the maximum punishment for carjacking by 10 years, it is not clear why a judge’s finding may increase the maximum punishment for murder from imprisonment to death. In fact, Walton would appear to have been a better candidate for the Court’s new approach than is the instant case.”526 U. S., at 272 .
One year after Jones, the Court decided Apprendi v. New Jersey,
The dispositive question, we said, “is one not of form, but of effect.” Id., at 494. If a State makes an increase in a defendant’s authorized punishment contingent on the finding of a fact, that fact — no matter how the State labels it — must be found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. See id., at 482-483. A defendant may not be “expose[d] ... to a penalty exceeding the maximum he would receive if punished according to the facts reflected in the jury verdict alone.” Id., at 483; see also id., at 499 (Scalia, J., concurring) (“[A]ll the facts which must exist in order to subject the defendant to a legally prescribed punishment must be found by the jury.’.’).
Walton could be reconciled with Apprendi, the Court finally asserted. The key distinction, according to the Ap-prendi Court, was that a conviction of first-degree murder in Arizona carried a maximum sentence of death. “[0]nce a jury has found the defendant guilty of all the elements of an offense which carries as its maximum penalty the sentence of death, it may be left to the judge to decide whether that maximum penalty, rather than a lesser one, ought to be imposed.”
The Apprendi dissenters called the Court’s distinction of Walton “baffling.”
The Arizona Supreme Court, as we earlier recounted, see supra, at 595-596, found the Apprendi majority’s portrayal of Arizona’s capital sentencing law incorrect, and the description in Justice O’Connor’s dissent precisely right: “Defendant’s death sentence required the judge’s factual findings.”
In an effort to reconcile its capital sentencing system with the Sixth Amendment as interpreted by Apprendi, Arizona first restates the Apprendi majority’s portrayal of Arizona’s system: Ring was convicted of first-degree murdеr, for which Arizona law specifies “death or life imprisonment” as the
Arizona also supports the distinction relied upon in Walton between elements of an offense and sentencing factors. See supra, at 598-599; Tr. of Oral Arg. 28-29. As to elevation of the maximum punishment, however, Apprendi renders the argument untenable;
Even if facts increasing punishment beyond the maximum authorized by a guilty verdict standing alone ordinarily must be found by a jury, Arizona further urges, aggravating circumstances necessary to trigger a death sentence may nonetheless be reserved for judicial determination. As Arizona’s counsel maintained at oral argument, there is no doubt that
Apart from the Eighth Amendment provenance of aggravating factors, Arizona presents “no specific reason for excepting capital defendants from the constitutional protections . . . extended] to defendants generally, and none is readily apparent.” Id., at 539 (O’Connor, J., dissenting). The notion “that the Eighth Amendment’s restriction on a state legislature’s ability to define capital crimes should be compensated for by permitting States more leeway under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments in proving an aggravating fact necessary to a capital sentence ... is without precedent in our constitutional jurisprudence.” Ibid.
In various settings, we have interpreted the Constitution to require the addition of an element or elements to the definition of a criminal offense in order to narrow its scope. See, e. g., United States v. Lopez,
Arizona suggests that judicial authority over the finding of aggravating factors “may... be a better way to guarantee against the arbitrary imposition of the death penalty.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 32. The Sixth Amendment jury trial right, however, does not turn on the relative rationality, fairness, or efficiency of potential factfinders. Entrusting to a judge the finding of facts necessаry to support a death sentence might be
“an admirably fair and efficient scheme of criminal justice designed for a society that is prepared to leave criminal justice to the State.... The founders of the American Republic were not prepared to leave it to the State, which is why the jury-trial guarantee was one of the least controversial provisions of the Bill of Rights. It has never been efficient; but it has always been free.” Apprendi,530 U. S., at 498 (Scalia, J., concurring).
In any event, the superiority of judicial factfinding in capital cases is far from evident. Unlike Arizona, the great majority of States responded to this Court’s Eighth Amendment decisions requiring the presence of aggravating circum
Although “ ‘the doctrine of stare decisis is of fundamental importance to the rule of law[,]’ ... [o]ur precedents are not sacrosanct.” Patterson v. McLean Credit Union,
* * *
“The guarantees of jury trial in the Federal and State Constitutions reflect a profound judgment about the way in which law should be enforced and justice administered. ... If the defendant preferred the common-sense judgment of a jury to the more tutored but perhaps less sympathetic reaction of the single judge, he was to have it.” Duncan v. Louisiana,391 U. S. 145 , 155-156 (1968).
The right to trial by jury guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment would be senselessly diminished if it encompassed the factfinding necessary to increase a defendant’s sentence by two years, but not the factfinding necessary to put him to death. We hold that the Sixth Amendment applies to both. The judgment of the Arizona Supreme Court is therefore reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Notes
The aggravating circumstances, enumerated in Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13-703(G) (West Supp. 2001), are:
“1. The defendant has been convictеd of another offense in the United States for which under Arizona law a sentence of life imprisonment or death was imposable.
“2. The defendant was previously convicted of a serious offense, whether preparatory or completed.
“3. In the commission of the offense the defendant knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person or persons in addition to the person murdered during the commission of the offense.
“4. The defendant procured the commission of the offense by payment, or promise of payment, of anything of pecuniary value.
“5. The defendant committed the offense as consideration for the receipt, or in expectation of the receipt, of anything of pecuniary value.
“6. The defendant committed the offense in an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner.
“7. The defendant committed the offense while in the custody of or on authorized or unauthorized release from the state department of corrections, a law enforcement agency or a county or city jail.
“9. The defendant was an adult at the time the offense was committed or was tried as an adult and the murdered person was under fifteen years of age or was seventy years of age or older.
“10. The murdered person was an on duty peace officer who was killed in the course of performing his official duties and the defendant knew, or should have known, that the murdered person was a peace officer.”
The statute enumerates certain mitigating circumstances, but the enumeration is not exclusive. “The court shall consider as mitigating circumstances any factors proffered by the defendant or the state which are relevant in determining whether to impose a sentence less than death_” §13-703(H).
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a... trial, by an impartial jury . ...”
Ring's claim is tightly delineated: He contends only that the Sixth Amendment required jury findings on the aggravating circumstances asserted against him. No aggravating circumstance related to past convictions in his case; Ring therefore does nоt challenge Almendarez-Torres v. United States,
In Harris v. United States, ante, p. 546, a majority of the Court concludes that the distinction between elements and sentencing factors continues to be meaningful as to facts increasing the minimum sentence. See ante, at 567 (plurality opinion) (“The factual finding in Apprendi extended the power of the judge, allowing him or her to impose a punishment exceeding what was authorized by the jury. [A] finding [that triggers a mandatory minimum sentence] restraints] the judge’s power, limiting his or her choices within the authorized range. It is quite consistent to maintain that the former type of fact must be submitted to the jury while the latter need not be.”); ante, at 569 (Breyer, J., concurring in part and
Of the 38 States with capital punishment, 29 generally commit sentencing decisions to juries. See Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-602 (1993); Cal. Penal Code Ann. § 190.3 (West 1999); Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53a-46a (2001); Ga. Code Ann. §17-10-31.1 (Supp. 1996); Ill. Comp. Stat. Ann., ch. 720, § 5/9 — 1(d) (West 1993); Kan. Stat. Ann. §21-4624(b) (1995); Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. §532.025(l)(b) (1993); La. Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. §905.1 (West 1997); Md. Ann. Code, Art. 27, § 413(b) (1996); Miss. Code Ann. §99-19-101 (1973-2000); Mo. Rev. Stat. §§565.030, 565.032 (1999 and Supp. 2002); Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. §175.552 (Michie 2001); N. H. Rev. Stat. Ann. §630:5(11) (1996); N. J. Stat. Ann. §2C:ll-3(c) (Supp. 2001); N. M. Stat. Ann. §31-20A-1 (2000); N. Y. Crim. Proc. Law §400.27 (McKinney Supp. 2001-2002); N. C. Gen. Stat. §15A-2000 (1999); Ohio Rev. Code Ann. §2929.03 (West 1997); Okla. Stat., Tit. 21, § 701.10(A) (Supp. 2001); Ore. Rev. Stat. Ann. §163.150 (1997); 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. §9711 (Supp. 2001); S. C. Code Ann. § 16-3-20(B) (1985); S. D. Codified Laws §23A-27A-2 (1998); Tenn. Code Ann. §39-13-204 (Supp. 2000); Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. 37.071 (Vernon Supp. 2001); Utah Code Ann. §76-3-207 (Supp. 2001); Va. Code Ann. § 19.2-264.3 (2000); Wash. Rev. Code § 10.95.050 (1990); Wyo. Stat. Ann. §6-2-102 (2001).
Other than Arizona, only four States commit both capital sentencing factfinding and the ultimate sentencing decision entirely to judges. See Colo. Rev. Stat. §16-11-103 (2001) (three-judge pаnel); Idaho Code § 19— 2515 (Supp. 2001); Mont. Code Ann. §46-18-301 (1997); Neb. Rev. Stat. §29-2520 (1995).
Four States have hybrid systems, in which the jury renders an advisory verdict but the judge makes the ultimate sentencing determinations. See Ala. Code §§13A-5-46, 13A-5-47 (1994); Del. Code Ann., Tit. 11, §4209 (1995); Fla. Stat. Ann. §921.141 (West 2001); Ind. Code Ann. §35-50-2-9 (Supp. 2001).
We do not reach the State’s assertion that any error was harmless because a pecuniary gain finding was implicit in the jury’s guilty verdict. See Neder v. United States,
Concurrence Opinion
with whom Justice Thomas joins, concurring.
The question whether Walton v. Arizona,
On the other hand, as I wrote in my dissent in Almendarez-Torres v. United States,
The quandary is apparent: Should I continue to apply the last-stated principle when I know that the only reason the fact is essential is that this Court has mistakenly said that the Constitution requires state law to impose such “aggra
Since Walton, I have acquired new wisdom that consists of two realizations — or, to put it more critically, have discarded old ignorance that consisted of the failure to realize two things: First, that it is impossible to identify with certainty those aggravating factors whose adoption has been wrongfully coerced by Furman, as opposed to those that the State would have adopted in any event. Some States, for example, already had aggravating-factor requirements for capital murder (e. g., murder of a peace officer, see 1965 N. Y. Laws p. 1022 (originally codified at N. Y. Penal Law § 1045)) when Furman was decided. When such a State has added aggravating factors, are the new ones the Apprendi-exempt product of Furman, and the old ones not? And even as to those States that did not previously have aggravating-factor requirements, who is to say that their adoption of a new one today — or, for that matter, even their retention of old ones adopted immediately post-Fwrraim — is still the product of that case, and not of a changed social belief that murder sim-pliciter does not deserve death?
Second, and more important, my observing over the past 12 years the accelerating propensity of both state and federal
Accordingly, whether or not the States have been erroneously coerced into the adoption of “aggravating factors,” wherever those factors exist they must be subject to the usual requirements of the common law, and to the requirement enshrined in our Constitution, in criminal cases: they must be found by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
I add one further point, lest the holding of today’s decision be confused by the separate concurrence. Justice Breyer, who refuses to accept Apprendi, see
Concurrence Opinion
concurring in the judgment.
I
Given my views in Apprendi v. New Jersey,
II
This Court has held that the Eighth Amendment requires States to apply special procedural safeguards when they seek the death penalty. Gregg v. Georgia,
I am convinced by the reasons that Justice Stevens has given. These include (1) his belief that retribution provides the main justification for capital punishment, and (2) his assessment of the jury’s comparative advantage in determining, in a particular case, whether capital punishment will serve that end.
As to the first, I note the continued difficulty of justifying capital punishment in terms of its ability to deter crime, to
As to incapacitation, few offenders sentenced to life without parole (as an alternative to death) commit further crimes. See, e. g., Sorensen & Pilgrim, An Actuarial Risk Assessment of Violence Posed by Capital Murder Defendants, 90 J. Crim. L. & C. 1251,1256 (2000) (studies find average repeat murder rate of .002% among murderers whose death sentences were commuted); Marquart & Sorensen, A National Study of the F^rmcm-Commuted Inmates: Assessing the Threat to Society from Capital Offenders, 23 Loyola (LA) L. Rev. 5, 26 (1989) (98% did not kill again either in prison or in free society). But see Roberts v. Louisiana,
In respect to retribution, jurors possess an important comparative advantage over judges. In principle, they are more attuned to “the community’s moral sensibility,” Spaziano,
Nor is the fact that some judges are democratically elected likely to change the jury’s comparative advantage in this respect. Even in jurisdictions where judges are selected directly by the people, the jury remains uniquely capable of determining whether, given the community’s views, capital punishment is appropriate in the particular case at hand. See Harris,
The importance of trying to translate a community’s sense of capital punishment’s appropriateness in a particular case is underscored by the continued division of opinion as to whether capital punishment is in all circumstances, as currently administered, “cruel and unusual.” Those who make this claim point, among other things, to the fact that death is not reversible, and to death sentences imposed upon those whose convictions proved unreliable. See, e. g., Weinstein, The Nation’s Death Penalty Foes Mark a Milestone Crime: Arizona convict freed on DNA tests is said to be the 100th known condemned U. S. prisoner to be exonerated since executions resumed, Los Angeles Times, Apr. 10, 2002, p. A16; G. Ryan, Governor of Illinois, Report of Governor’s Commis
They pоint to the potentially arbitrary application of the death penalty, adding that the race of the victim and socioeconomic factors seem to matter. See, e. g., U. S. General Accounting Office, Report to Senate and House Committees on the Judiciary: Death Penalty Sentencing 5 (Feb. 1990) (synthesis of 28 studies shows “pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty”); Baldus, Woodworth, Zuekerman, Weiner, & Broffitt, Racial Discrimination and the Death Penalty in the Post-Furman Era: An Empirical and Legal Overview, With Recent Findings from Philadelphia, 83 Cornell L. Rev. 1638, 1661 (1998) (evidence of race-of-victim disparities in 90% of States studied and of race-of-defendant disparities in 55%); McCleskey v. Kemp,
They argue that the delays that increasingly accompany sentences of death make those sentences unconstitutional because of “the suffering inherent in a prolonged wait for execution.” Knight v. Florida,
And they note that other nations have increasingly abandoned capital punishment. See, e. g., San Martin, U. S. Taken to Task Over Death Penalty, Miami Herald, May 31, 2001, p. 1 (United States is only Western industrialized Nation that authorizes the death penalty); Amnesty International Website Against the Death Penalty, Facts and Figures on the Death Penalty (2002), http://www.web.amnesty.org/ rmp/dplibrary.nsf (since Gregg, 111 countries have either abandoned the penalty altogether, reserved it only for exceptional crimes like wartime crimes, or not carried out executions for at least the past 10 years); DeYoung, Group Criticizes U. S. on Detainee Policy; Amnesty Warns of Human Rights Fallout, Washington Post, May 28, 2002, p. A4 (the United States rates fourth in number of executions, after China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia).
Many communities may have accepted some or all of these claims, for they do not impose capital sentences. See A Broken System, App. B, Table 11A (more than two-thirds of American counties have never imposed the death penalty since Gregg (2,064 out of 3,066), and only 3% of the Nation’s counties account for 50% of the Nation’s death sentences (92 out of 3,066)). Leaving questions of arbitrariness aside, this diversity argues strongly for procedures that will help assure that, in a particular case, the community indeed believes application of the death penalty is appropriate, not “cruel,” “unusual,” or otherwise unwarranted.
For these reasons, the danger of unwarranted imposition of the penalty cannot be avoided unless “the decision to impose the death penalty is made by a jury rather than by a single governmental official.” Spaziano,
Dissenting Opinion
with whom The Chief Justice joins, dissenting.
I understand why the Court holds that the reasoning of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530.U. S. 466 (2000), is irreconcilable with Walton v. Arizona,
I continue to believe, for the reasons I articulated in my dissent in Apprendi, that the decision in Apprendi was a serious mistake. As I argued in that dissent, Apprendi’s rule that any fact that increases the maximum penalty must be treated as an element of the crime is not required by the Constitution, by history, or by our prior cases. See
Not only was the decision in Apprendi unjustified in my view, but it has also had a severely destabilizing effect on our criminal justice system. I predicted in my dissent that the decision would “unleash a flood of petitions by convicted defendants seeking to invalidate their sentences in whole or
The decision today is only going tо add to these already serious effects. The Court effectively declares five States’ capital sentencing schemes unconstitutional. See ante, at 608, n. 6 (identifying Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Nebraska as having sentencing schemes like Arizona’s). There are 168 prisoners on death row in these States, Criminal Justice Project of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., Death Row U. S. A. (Spring 2002), each of whom
By expanding on Apprendi, the Court today exacerbates the harm done in that case. Consistent with my dissent, I would overrule Apprendi rather than Walton.
This data was obtained from a Westlaw search conducted May 31,2002, in the United States Courts of Appeals database using the following search terms: “ ‘Apprendi v. New Jersey’ & Title[‘U.S.’ or ‘United States’].”
Specific counts are on file with the Clerk of the Court.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring.
Though it is still my view that Apprendi v. New Jersey,
This is not to say Apprendi should be extended without caution, for the States’ settled expectations deserve our respect. A sound understanding of the Sixth Amendment will allow States to respond to the needs and realities of criminal justice administration, and Apprendi can be read as leaving in place many reforms designed to reduce unfairness in sentencing. I agree with the Court, however, that Apprendi and Walton cannot stand together as the law.
With these observations I join the opinion of the Court.