Anyone have any experience with judges trying to get you to plead your death case???

What's the judge's motivation--anti-death or just doesn't want to do the work? Is a visiting judge (done occasionally in d/p cases) an option?

Anti death and time. Wants jury picked in two weeks

He doesnt want to do a visiting judge. Both sides have tried that angle

How about reminding said judge that he has absolutley no say in the matter. Capital murder carries the punishment range of Death or LWOP. Unless the DA takes death of the table, there is nothing the judge can do to impede the wheels of justice.

Michael J. Jarrett

Theoretically you are right, but the judge has already indicated one way in which he may try to influence events. Most death penalty juries are picked over about a month. While two weeks may not be impossible, short-cuts (harmful or not) will be inevitable. Not to mention what else the judge could do in this or other cases because he doesn't get his way.

In my last capital, the judge limited both sides to 22 1/2 minutes a side for voir dire. He really wanted us to plead the case. The defendant brutally beat two defenseless little old ladies to death. The jury sentenced the defendant to death.

quote:

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Originally posted by Shane Phelps:
In my last capital, the judge limited both sides to 22 1/2 minutes a side for voir dire.

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Holy. Crap. The defense attorney and I took nearly 3 hours on the voir dire of the class B DWI case we did on Monday...

Well, a DWI really is more complicated than a capital murder, right Mr. Alpert?

Shane,
Did you have detailed written questionnaires or was it all oral?

We had a pretty detailed written questionnaire and about two days to go through them after a general voir dire (two hours per side).

You've got to admire their chutzpah:

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpID=348&NewsID=973989&CategoryID=7227&show=localnews&om=1

Well, doesn't that begin to respond to the notion of evolving standards?

You know it, but do you think the SCOTUS will buy it? Perhaps if more states jumped on board?

What if States passed a resolution saying they would pass a death penalty if it was constitutional? Then, you are faced with the need for a vehicle that gets you back to SCOTUS for a new ruling. Obviously, some court before SCOTUS would find the new law unconstitutional, and then you have to convince SCOTUS to take review. Little incentive.

But this all goes back to the difficulty of declaring an area unconstitutional based on some subjective weighing of social values at a given time. No way to reweigh.

Unless, of course, you get a constitutional amendment.