Reviewing categorical limits on death penalty created by US Supreme Court

Here is a list of (and links to) rulings by the Supreme Court declaring (or suggesting in the case of Tison v. Arizona) that the Eighth Amendment places substantive categorical limits on the application of the death penalty.  Can you see a common thread or theme to these rulings?

 

Crime:

Rape: Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977)

Rape of Children: Kennedy v. Louisiana 554 U.S. 407 (2008)

Lesser Murders: Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137 (1987)

 

Criminal:

Insane: Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986)

Juveniles: Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U. S. 815 (1988); Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005)

Intellectually Disabled: Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002)

 

If you can identify a theme to these rulings, and there additional categorical limits that should be set forth by the Supreme Court?  Suggestions have been made that felony murder (on the crime side) and mental illness (on the criminal side) should be the basis for categorical restrictions on the death penalty.

Also, as we will discuss when wrapping up the death penalty, if the Eighth Amendment places categorical limits on death sentences, should it also place some categorical limits on other extreme sentences like life without parole?  How about life with parole? 

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And if you want to spend a lot more time reflecting on race and the death penalty, McClesky and its aftermath, the Fall 2012 issue of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law had a symposium focused on "McClesky at 25."  Here are links to all the articles in the symposium:

• Douglas A. Berman, McCleskey at 25: Reexamining the “Fear of Too Much Justice" , 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 1 (2012).

• Scott E. Sundby,  The Loss of Constitutional Faith: McCleskey v. Kemp and the Dark Side of Procedure, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 5 (2012).

• John H. Blume & Sherri Lynn Johnson, Unholy Parallels between McCleskey v. Kemp and Plessy v. Ferguson: Why McCleskey (Still) Matters, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 37 (2012).

• G. Ben Cohen, McCleskey’s Omission: The Racial Geography of Retribution, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 65 (2012).

• Robert P. Mosteller, Responding to McCleskey and Batson: The North Carolina Racial Justice Act Confronts Racial Peremptory Challenges in Death Cases, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 103 (2012).

• Kent Scheidegger, Rebutting the Myths About Race and the Death Penalty, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 147 (2012).