Reforming the Jury Override: Protecting Capital Defendants' Rights by Returning to the System's Original Purpose

Abstract

The death penalty has been justified as the "community's judgment ... [of] the defendant's outrageous affront to humanity."' In Alabama and Florida,2 the two states that use the so-called "jury override"3 in capital cases, the ultimate decision of life or death is left to the trial judge, not to the jury, as the best reflection of the "community's judgment." After the guilt phase of the trial, the jury issues only an advisory sentence of life or death, which the trial judge has the authority to override.4 In Alabama and Florida, judges have used their override power eighty-three and 167 times respectively, to sentence a defendant to death after a jury recommended