Decision

The case Kansas vs. Carr raises many questions about the death penalty, especially in relation to the Eighth Amendment. One of the main questions in this case has to do with jury instructions in the penalty stage of the trial. (Kansas v. Carr) The district judge in this phase of the trial failed to adequately instruct the jury on the correct standard of review for mitigating evidence. Unlike other types of evidence in any criminal proceedings, mitigating evidence need not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, nor does the jury need to be unanimous on the validity of mitigating evidence. Did the district judge violate the Eighth Amendment when he failed to explicitly explain this to the jury?
Upon review, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that yes, he did. By failing to “affirmatively instruct” (Kansas v. Carr) the jury on the proper standard of …show more content…
Ohio (1978): Sandra Lockett was found guilty of murder after driving the escape vehicle for an armed robbery that resulted in the murder of the storeowners. After pleading not guilty, she was convicted of murder according to the Ohio statue that held she that she was of sound mind and body because “a person engaged in a common design with others to rob by force and violence…is presumed to acquiesce [with whatever actions result]” (State v. Palfy). Lockett debated that she was being convicted unconstitutionally due to the fact that her mitigating factors were not considered and that failure to do so would violate her Eighth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights and was unconstitutional. Fortunately for Lockett, the Court voted 7 to 1 in her favor. On July 3rd 1978, the holding of Lockett v. Ohio was established. The holding of the case stated that due to the death penalty’s severity and the fact that requires a much high level of reliability than other types of punishments, statues that limit mitigating evidence violate the Eighth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment and are therefore