Justice John Paul Stevens and Capital Punishment by Christopher E. Smith
ISSUE 15.2 FALL 2010 Justice John Paul Stevens and Capital Punishment By Christopher E. Smith† I. INTRODUCTION The formal announcement in April 2010 of Justice John Paul Stevens‘s impending retirement1 elicited a torrent of analyses2 and recollections about his career. 3 As one of the longest-serving Justices in Supreme Court history, 4 Stevens gained recognition in † *Professor of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University. A.B., Harvard University, 1980; M.Sc., University of Bristol (U.K.), 1981; J.D., University of Tennessee, 1984; Ph.D., University of Connecticut, 1988. I am grateful for the work of my undergraduate research assistant, Netkeitha Heath, who helped to organize information about Supreme Court decisions from 1976 through 2008. 1 Robert Barnes & William Branigan, Justice John Paul Stevens Announces His Retirement from Supreme Court, WASH. POST, Apr. 10, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2010/04/09/AR2010040902312.html. 2 See, e.g., Tony Mauro, A Legacy of Independence on the Court, NAT‘L L.J., Apr. 12, 2010, http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202447880552; Marcia Coyle, Criminal Justice Will Never Be the Same, NAT‘L L.J., Apr. 12, 2010, http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202447880425; Linda Greenhouse, Op-Ed., One Man, Two Courts, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 11, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/opinion/11greenhouse.html. 3 Susan Estrich, Eduardo M. Penalver, Jeffrey L. Fisher, Cliff Sloan, Deborah N. Pearlstein & Joseph Thai, Op-Ed., My Boss, Justice Stevens, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 11, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/opinion/11stevens.html.
[Show full text]