Abstract
In the United States, a society that strongly affirms the sanctity of life, death is an anomalous punishment. The death penalty inherently entails "the total destruction of the individual's status in organized society" as well as the individual's very existence. As Justice Brennan observed in the landmark case Furman v. Georgia, "[d]eath is today an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, in its finality, and in its enormity. No other existing punishment is comparable to death in terms of physical and mental suffering." Consequently, capital punishment jurisprudence has placed constitutional boundaries on a sentencer's discretion to impose the death penalty.
Recommended Citation
Weron, Kathleen D.
(1994)
"Rethinking Utah's Death Penalty Statute:
A Constitutional Requirement for the
Substantive Narrowing of Aggravating
Circumstances,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 1994:
No.
3, Article 3.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol1994/iss3/3