United States Supreme Court
Lynch v. Arizona, 15-8366
In a case in which the Arizona Supreme Court found that the State had put petitioner's future dangerousness at issue during his capital sentencing proceeding and acknowledged that his only alternative sentence to death was life imprisonment without parole, but the court nonetheless concluded that petitioner had no right to inform the jury of his parole ineligibility, the Arizona Supreme Court's judgment is reversed where under Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U. S. 154 (1994), and its progeny, when a capital defendant's future dangerousness is at issue, and the only sentencing alternative to death available to the jury is life imprisonment without possibility of parole, the Due Process Clause entitles the defendant to inform the jury of his parole ineligibility, either by a jury instruction or in arguments by counsel.
Appellate Information
- Decided
- Published 2016/05/31
Judges
- PER CURIAM
Court
- United States Supreme Court