Word: legality
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...roiled by the departure of its elected District Attorney over a sex-and-e-mail scandal) brought only two capital cases this year. One ended in a tough plea bargain and a 60-year sentence; the other, involving the vicious murder of a police officer, shocked the city's legal community when the defendant was convicted but spared the death penalty and given a life sentence...
...realization that capital cases usually cost county government upwards of $2 million each, Houle says, have helped reduce the number of death penalty cases. Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions striking down the death penalty in certain kinds of cases - the rape of a child - and concerns about the legality of executing mentally retarded or mentally ill individuals have also slowed the number of capital cases being brought. With broader legal options, the most execution-prone state of the union may increasingly be opting for some other punishment than a life for a life...
Attorneys-General of California are usually expected to defend successful statewide propositions against those who would challenge their legality in court. But Proposition 8, which ended gay marriage in the state, passed while the Attorney-General's office happens to be occupied by Jerry Brown, the celebrity activist, former two-term governor and mayor of Oakland, a man for whom political second a cts are second-nature. Early on, Brown had indicated he would fulfill his duties as A.G. and use the powers of his office to defend Prop 8. Indeed, Brown had sided with opponents of gay marriage earlier...
With an 111-page legal brief that has surprised legal scholars, Brown reversed course and repudiated his previous statements indicating he'd likely support the legality of Prop 8. Instead, on Friday, he urged the state's Supreme Court to overturn the vote, a move that would infuriate conservatives who are still white-hot mad over the court's historic 4-3 decision that earlier this year prohibited all forms of discrimination against gays, and mandated the state issue marriage licenses to gay couples. In a wide-ranging interview, Brown told TIME that his view of the legal merits...
...Friday, Brown's legal brief ignited a statewide debate among legal scholars, with discussion of the argument dominating law professor list-servs and e-mail lists. "It's creative and contains thoughtful insights," says Vikram Amar, a constitutional law professor and dean of academics at the University of California-Davis. "It profoundly highlights the almost paradoxical character of American constitutionalism: That minority rights exists only to the extent that the majority stands behind them...