The fate of hundreds of death row inmates across the United States rests with the nine-member US Supreme Court, which is soon to rule on the constitutionality of the death penalty in nine states.
The highly-anticipated ruling has far-reaching implications and has already influenced individual cases, as Florida Governor Jeb Bush, brother to US President George W Bush, has postponed the executions of two of the state's 385 death row inmates in anticipation of the imminent decision.
It is a fine legal point in the case of Arizona inmate Timothy Ring, sentenced to death in 1994 for the murder of an armoured-vehicle driver during a robbery, which piqued the high court's interest. "The special thing about Arizona is that the judge renders the death penalty decision rather than a jury," said Ring's attorney Mr John Stooky.
Seven other states have similar policies - Alabama, with 188 death row inmates, Colorado (six), Delaware (17), Idaho (2O), Indiana (39), Montana (six) and Nebraska (six). In 29 other states, juries impose death sentences.
"It's not clear how the final decision will come down, but it certainly could affect all the death row inmates in all the states that use a judge to sentence," said Mr Richard Dieter, the director of Washington's Death Penalty Information Center.
The high court ruling, Mr Dieter said, will mean that "all of those 800 people will have to have a new sentencing hearing or maybe they just will simply have their sentencing automatically reduced".
Ring’s lawyers have based their argument on the Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution, which states that "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed."
Experts have found a distinct connection between the point argued in the Ring case and the 1972 Supreme Court decision Furman vs. Georgia, when it was ruled that the death penalty was administered arbitrarily and with cruelty in the southern state. In a 5-4 decision on June 29, 1972, the court opted to impose a more uniform standard across the United States. As a result, 620 death sentences were commuted into life terms.
Ring's case is to be heard by the court in April. A decision is expected in the following months.
AFP