Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law

Just a quick note to remind everyone that…

1.  The next deadline for submission of a mini-paper (requirements outlined here) is this coming Monday (Feb. 9) at 12noon.

2.  You should prepare for this week's classes by:

• (re)considering how differing state capital laws impact death sentencing discretion for the Unibomber (and others)

• (re)reading McClesky v. Kemp (paying extra special attention to the final few paragraphs of the majority opinion rejecting the defendant's claims)

• thinking about whether and why the Supreme Court should categorically preclude states from allowing certain criminals ever to be sentenced to death — especially once it has categorically precluded states from legislating that certain criminals must always be sentenced to death

3.  If you are especially interested in understanding McClesky and its aftermath, the Fall 2012 issue of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law had a lead symposium focused on "McClesky at 25."  Here are links to all the articles in the symposium:

• Douglas A. Berman, McCleskey at 25: Reexamining the “Fear of Too Much Justice" , 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 1 (2012).

• Scott E. Sundby,  The Loss of Constitutional Faith: McCleskey v. Kemp and the Dark Side of Procedure, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 5 (2012).

• John H. Blume & Sherri Lynn Johnson, Unholy Parallels between McCleskey v. Kemp and Plessy v. Ferguson: Why McCleskey (Still) Matters, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 37 (2012).

• G. Ben Cohen, McCleskey’s Omission: The Racial Geography of Retribution, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 65 (2012).

• Robert P. Mosteller, Responding to McCleskey and Batson: The North Carolina Racial Justice Act Confronts Racial Peremptory Challenges in Death Cases, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 103 (2012).

• Kent Scheidegger, Rebutting the Myths About Race and the Death Penalty, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 147 (2012).

Anyone interested in the intersection of race and the death penalty should consider taking a quick peak at all of these article.  But, especially for future class discussion purposes, the final two pieces linked above (the long Mosteller piece and the short Scheidegger piece) may be most worth your extra reading time and attention.