Deck 3: The Challenge to Capital Punishments Legality

Question 1

In which of the following decades did the fundamental legality of capital punishment itself become the subject of challenge?

A) 1950s
B) 1960s
C) 1970s
D) 1980s
E) none of the above

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following Constitutional amendments presumably authorizes capital punishment?

A) the 2^nd
B) the 4^th
C) the 5^th
D) the 6^th
E) the 9^th

Answer 2

C

Question 3

In his 1961 University of Southern California Law Review article, what was the novel (new) reason Professor Gottlieb used in arguing that the death penalty was unconstitutional?

A) it violated contemporary moral standards*
B) it was administered in an arbitrary and capricious way
C) it was administered in a discriminatory way against minorities
D) it resulted in the deaths of innocent people
E) all of the above

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Of what common practice was Professor Oberer critical in his 1961 University of Texas Law Review article?

A) death qualifying jurors
B) hiding executions from public view
C) jury sentence overrides by judges
D) giving offenders their choice of execution methods
E) none of the above

Question 5

In which of the following cases did Justice Arthur Goldberg suggest that the entire Court ought to determine whether or not the death penalty for a rapist who has not taken a life was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment?

A) Coker v. Eberheart
B) Maxwell v. Bishop
C) Rudolph v. Alabama
D) U.S. v. Jackson
E) none of the above

Question 6

Which of the following organizations' lawyers spearheaded the 1960s challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty?

A) the American League to Abolish Capital Punishment
B) the American Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment
C) the American Civil Liberties Union
D) the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
E) none of the above

Question 7

Who was the intellectual leader and "front man" of the capital project of the organization that challenged the constitutionality of the death penalty in the 1960s?

A) Anthony Amsterdam
B) Thurgood Marshall
C) Alan Dershowitz
D) Arthur Goldberg
E) none of the above

Question 8

In which of the following years were there no legal executions for the first time in American history?

A) 1852
B) 1887
C) 1917
D) 1968
E) 1972

Question 9

The case of Maxwell v. Bishop, among other things, contributed to the unofficial moratorium on executions. For which of the following offenses was Maxwell convicted?

A) murder
B) rape
C) kidnapping
D) all of the above
E) he was never convicted

Question 10

What does research show about death-qualified jurors?

A) They are less concerned with due process and more inclined to believe the prosecution than are excludable jurors.
B) They are significantly less knowledgeable and have more misconceptions about the death penalty and the death-sentencing process than do excludable jurors.
C) They are more likely to believe that the focus of the penalty phase of a bifurcated trial should be only on the nature of the crime rather than mitigation, and that the death penalty deters murder.
D) They are less likely to believe that innocent people are convicted of capital crimes, that the death penalty is unfair to minorities, and that life without parole really means that a prisoner will not be released from prison.
E) all of the above

Question 11

In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court, for the first time, consider the constitutionality of the death penalty itself and not simply the procedures used to impose it?

A) McGautha v. California
B) Boykin v. Alabama
C) Furman v. Georgia
D) U.S. v. Jackson
E) none of the above

Question 12

In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court tacitly approve (1) unfettered jury discretion in death sentencing, and (2) capital trials in which guilt and sentence were determined in one set of deliberations (instead of bifurcated proceedings)?

A) Furman v. Georgia, Jackson v. Georgia, and Branch v. Texas
B) Gregg v. Georgia, Jurek v. Texas, and Proffitt v. Florida
C) U.S. v. Jackson and Witherspoon v. Illinois
D) McGautha v. California and Crampton v. Ohio
E) none of the above

Question 13

In which of the following Supreme Court cases did Justice Harlan write, "Those who have come to grips with the hard task of actually attempting to draft means of channeling capital sentencing discretion have confirmed the lesson taught by . . . history . . . . To identify before the fact those characteristics of criminal homicides and their perpetrators which call for the death penalty, and to express these characteristics in language which can be fairly understood and applied by the sentencing authority, appear to be tasks which are beyond present human ability"?

A) McGautha v. California
B) Furman v. Georgia
C) U.S. v. Jackson
D) Gregg v. Georgia
E) none of the above

Question 14

In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court hold the death penalty, as administered, to be unconstitutional?

A) Gregg v. Georgia
B) Furman v. Georgia
C) Proffitt v. Florida
D) McGautha v. California
E) none of the above

Question 15

In what year did the Supreme Court set aside death sentences for the first time in American history?

A) 1968
B) 1971
C) 1976
D) 1977
E) none of the above (1972)

Question 16

Why did the Supreme Court declare the death penalty to be unconstitutional, as administered?

A) because in capital trials, guilt and sentence were determined in one set of deliberations (instead of bifurcated proceedings)
B) because juries were given complete discretion to decide whether to impose the death penalty or a lesser punishment in capital cases
C) because prospective jurors were being excused simply because they were opposed to capital punishment
D) because to impose the death penalty, jury recommendations were required
All of the above

Question 17

Which amendments were violated in the case in which the Supreme Court held the death penalty, as administered, to be unconstitutional?

A) 4^th & 8^th
B) 6^th & 8^th
C) 8^th & 14^th
D) 6^th & 14^th
E) none of the above

Question 18

Which of the following states was the first jurisdiction to reinstate the death penalty following the Court's decision in the case in which the death penalty was held to be unconstitutional?

A) Florida
B) Texas
C) Georgia
D) Indiana
E) none of the above

Question 19

In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court reject "mandatory" death penalty statutes passed by some states following Furman?

A) Gregg v. Georgia, Jurek v. Texas, and Proffitt v. Florida
B) Coker v. Georgia and Eberheart v. Georgia
C) McGautha v. California and Crampton v. Ohio
D) Woodson v. North Carolina and Roberts v. Louisiana
E) none of the above

Question 20

In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court hold that "guided discretion" death penalty statutes are constitutional?

A) Gregg v. Georgia
B) Coker v. Georgia
C) Roberts v. Louisiana
D) Woodson v. North Carolina
E) none of the above

Question 21

What state was the first jurisdiction to impose a post-Furman death sentence?

A) Louisiana
B) North Carolina
C) Ohio
D) Georgia
E) none of the above

Question 22

Which of the following is not a type of guided discretion statute?

A) structured
B) aggravating only
C) aggravating v. mitigating
D) mitigating v. structured
E) all of the above are types

Question 23

Which of the following types of guided discretion statute is employed by Florida?

A) structured
B) aggravating only
C) aggravating v. mitigating
D) mitigating v. structured
E) none of the above

Question 24

As a result of Supreme Court decisions, the death penalty, unlike any other punishment prescribed by law, requires special procedures that ensure its lawful application. What has Professor Margaret Jane Radin called those special procedures:

A) "powerful procedural safeguards"
B) "due process plus"
C) "the Court's cuisine"
D) "super due process"
E) none of the above

Question 25

Between 1968 and 1977 no one was executed under state authority in the United States.

Question 26

In U.S. v. Jackson (1968), the Supreme Court upheld the provision in the federal kidnapping statute that required a jury recommendation to impose the death penalty.

Question 27

"Death qualification" refers to the common practice of excusing prospective jurors simply because they are opposed to capital punishment.

Question 28

Research shows that "death-qualified" juries are more conviction-prone.

Question 29

The LDF attorneys hoped that the arguments set forth in the Boykin v. Alabama brief would eventually become the basis for the death penalty's complete abolition on Eighth Amendment grounds.

Question 30

The five justices of the Furman majority maintained that capital punishment, itself, violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Question 31

The U.S. Supreme Court was the first federal court to declare the death penalty unconstitutional in violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Question 32

The Supreme Court opined that the "guided discretion" statutes would respect the defendant's basic human dignity, as required by the Eighth Amendment, and prevent jury nullification-the practice of a jury's refusal to convict guilty defendants to avoid imposing unjust death sentences.

Question 33

Following Furman, Congress passed a constitutional amendment to restore the death penalty.

Question 34

Life without opportunity of parole (LWOP) statutes were enacted in response to the Furman decision.

Question 35

Bifurcated trials consist of a guilt phase, where guilt or innocence is the principal issue to be determined, and a penalty phase, where the imposition of either a life or death sentence is the sole issue.

Question 36

The purpose of proportionality review is to identify sentencing disparities and aid in their elimination.

Question 37

The primary justification for the unique procedural safeguards approved by the Supreme Court was the "death is different" principle.

Question 38

In approving guided-discretion death penalty statutes, the Court apparently opted (if it ever considered the dilemma) for consistency in application over the consideration of individual circumstances.

Question 39

The Supreme Court approved the "guided discretion" statutes on faith.

Question 40

If a jury in a "weighing state" finds aggravating and mitigating factors of equal weight, it may impose a death sentence.

Question 41

During the 1960s, one-quarter of the prisoners executed had no appeals at all, and two-thirds of their cases were never reviewed by a federal court.

Question 42

At the end of 2009, all states with capital punishment statutes provided for an automatic review of all death sentences, regardless of the defendant's wishes.

Question 43

The Supreme Court has held that state appellate courts must provide, upon request, proportionality review of death sentences.