US Supreme Court rejects death penalty appeal

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2004

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Supreme Court refused to strike down the death sentences of about 100 convicts who argued their punishments should have been decided by a jury instead of a judge.

The court ruled by a 5-4 majority that the constitutional right to a jury trial does not mean a defendant who has had a full trial and "one round of appeals" may "nevertheless continue to litigate his claims indefinitely in hopes that we will one day have a change of heart."

The nation's highest court ruled in 2002 that judges may not impose death sentences without having juries weigh any mitigating circumstances.

But in the majority opinion, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the court argued that the 2002 ruling could not be applied retroactively to convicts who had...