DEATH IS DIFFERENT … FOR SOME

By Alexandra James^*

The Editors of the Criminal Law Journal take great pride in publishing the following article, which was authored by Alexandra James, a law student at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Ms. James won one of five Honorable Mention Prizes in the 2016-2017 Competition for Student Papers in Criminal Law and/or Criminal Procedure, sponsored by the Criminal Law Section of the California Lawyers Association.

The judges of the writing competition were impressed by the quality and caliber of entries in this year’s competition and offer their gratitude and encouragement to those students, from law schools throughout the country, who submitted articles. All law students are cordially invited to participate in the 2017-2018 Competition. www.calawyers.org/Sections/Criminal-Law/Student-Writing-Competition

The use of the death penalty in the United States has been challenged for decades. It has been the subject of intense debate because of the persistent racial discrimination evident in its application since the 1972 landmark case of Furman v. Georgia. Even after forty years of changes to death penalty law, this country is still experiencing many of the troubling issues that troubled the Court in the first place.