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Death Penalty Redux: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s Role in the Rehnquist Court and the Future of the Death Penalty in America

January 1, 2002

ITEM DETAILS

Type: Law review article
Author: Victoria Ashley student author
Source: Baylor L. Rev.
Citation: 54 Baylor L. Rev. 407 (2002)
Date is approximate: Yes
View on Lib.asu.edu

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DEATH PENALTY REDUX: JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR’S ROLE ON THE REHNQUIST COURT AND THE FUTURE OF THE DEATH

PENALTY IN AMERICA

Victoria Ashley’

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 407

THE DEATH PENALTY IN 2001 COMPARED TO THE

DEATH PENALTY IN 1971 (PRE-FURMAN) 410

BACKGROUND OF JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR 412

JUSTICE O’CONNOR’S ROLE ON THE REHNQUIST COURT 413

JUSTICE O’CONNOR’S PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO

JURISPRUDENCE 415

JUSTICE O’CONNOR’S DECISIONS IN OTHER AREAS

OF THE LAW 416

Non-parental visitation statutes 416

Abortion 416

Voting Rights Decisions 417

JUSTICE O’CONNOR’S DECISIONS IN DEATH PENALTY

CASES 418

Accomplice Felony Murder: Enmund v. Florida 418

Accomplice Felony Murder: Tison v. Arizona 419

Juvenile Murderers and the Death Penalty:

Thompson v. Oklahoma 42 l

Mental Retardation and the Dea”th Penalty:

Penry v. Lynaugh 42l

Mental Retardation and the Death Penalty:

Penry v. Johnson 422

CONCLUSION 424

l. INTRODUCTION

Concerns about capital punishment expressed publicly by United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor could signal that changes are ahead in the way the Supreme Court deals with the death penalty. On July

‘J.D., Baylor University School of Law, May 2002; B.L.S. in Psychology, summa cum

laude, Saint Edward’s University. 1994.

408 BAYLOR LAW REVIEW [Vol. 54:2

1, 2001, in an address to the Minnesota Women Lawyers, Justice O’Connor expressed her concerns regarding the implementation of the death penalty in the United States. Justice

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