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Murder, media and other capital mayhem

By Douglas A. Berman

I have been meaning all week to spotlight Jeffrey Toobin's fascinating essay in The New Yorker about all the craziness surrounding the crimes and trials and tribulations of Brian Nichols, the notorious Georgia courthouse shooter.  Here was one of many great passages from the Toobin piece:The Nichols case illustrates a troubling paradox in death-penalty jurisprudence: the more heinous a crime ? and the more incontrovertible the evidence of a defendant?s guilt ? the greater the cost of the defense may be . Death-penalty trials require juries not only to determine whether the defendant is guilty but also to make other complex moral judgments ? why a defendant committed a crime, whether he is likely to do so again, what punishment fits the crime...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).