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"Will death become the exception, not the rule?"

By Douglas A. Berman

This effective piece from the Houston Chronicle, which reflects on a recent Texas jury decision to reject a death sentencing for a cop-killer, caries the same headline as this post.  Here are excerpts:If there was one thing that was all but certain in the world of Houston criminal justice, it was that someone who killed a law enforcement officer ended up paying with his life. So inevitable was this simple rule of cause and effect that the rare deviation came with a ready explanation.... But now comes the case of Juan Quintero.  The life sentence given to the illegal immigrant by a jury last week has no such asterisk attached.  The jury decided to spare him, despite the brutal killing of Houston police officer Rodney Johnson, which raises the question of whether any death case ? even in the nation's death penalty capital ? is a slam-dunk anymore...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 27, 2008 (boomark / email).