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Supreme Court reverses Sixth Circuit reversal of death sentence in Spisak

By Douglas A. Berman

The Supreme Court has released this morning an opinion Smith v. Spisak, No. 08-724 (Jan. 12, 2010) (available here), which reverses the Sixth Circuit reversal of a death sentence for a notorious murderer. Here is a snippet from Justice Breyer's opinion from a section of the opinion in which the Court was unanimous: [I]n light of counsel?s several appeals to the jurors? sense of humanity ? he used the words ?humane people? and ?humane society? 10 times at various points in the argument ? we cannot find that a more explicit or more elaborate appeal for mercy could have changed the result, either alone or together with the other circum-stances just discussed. Thus, we conclude that there is not a reasonable probability that a more adequate closing argument would have changed the result, and that the Ohio Supreme Court?s rejection of Spisak?s claim was not ?contrary to, or ...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 12, 2010 (boomark / email).