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1 1 (October 21, 1999)

handle is hein.crs/crsahfx0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS20369 October 21, 1999 Capital Punishment: Summary of Supreme Court Decisions of the 1998-99 Term Paul Starett Wallace, Jr. Specialist in American Public Law American Law Division Summary Decisions During the October 1998 Term The four capital punishment decisions which were decided during the October 1998 Term involved issues concerning (1) erroneous jury instructions prior to a sentence of death, (2) prosecutorial misconduct, (3) jury instructions on consequences of deadlock in a sentencing hearing conducted under the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, and (4) challenge to use of lethal gas over lethal injection as a method of execution. 'For additional background materials on the subject, see W. White, Capital Punishment's Future, 91 Mich. L. Rev. 1429, 1429 (1993); D. Schrader, Capital Punishment: Summary of Supreme Court Decisions on the Death Penalty, CRS Report 96-116 A (Feb. 1, 1996); P. Wallace, Capital Punishment Summary of Supreme Court Decisions During the 1997-98 Term, CRS Report RL30145 (April 19, 1999). Congressional Research Service + The Library of Congress CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web The most significant capital punishment cases decided by the Supreme Court during the 1998-99 term did very little in terms of reversing the lower courts where the petitioners were the defendants at the trial level.' Significantly, among these cases, the Court settled splits in the circuits on issues of statutory interpretation and other trial- related issues. The Court also made clear that withholding an element of an offense from a jury's consideration can be a harmless error. In the Strickler case, the Court gave some guidance on what materality means for purposes of the disclosure rule of Brady v. Maryland. Additionally, the Court took its first look at the new federal death penalty statute.