Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly Volume 15 Article 5 Number 4 Summer 1988 1-1-1988 California v. Brown: Against the Antisympathy Instruction Julianne C. Sylva Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly Part of the Constitutional Law Commons Recommended Citation Julianne C. Sylva, California v. Brown: Against the Antisympathy Instruction, 15 Hastings Const. L.Q. 669 (1988). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol15/iss4/5 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. California v. Brown: Against the Antisympathy Instruction "Judges, by long custom, become hardened in the business of con- demning, and may sometimes pronounce sentences, which even when legal, may be unnecessary. Jurors, less accustomed to the cruel task, retain those feelings which sometimes plead against evi- dence in favor of humanity, and soften the rigor of penal laws." 1 On January 27, 1987, the United States Supreme Court took a step toward limiting the discretion allowed the jury during the sentencing phase of a death penalty trial. In California v. Brown,2 the Supreme Court held that instruction 1.00 of California Jury Instructions, Criminal (the antisympathy instruction)3 read to