Melissa Carrington, Applying Apprendi to Jury Sentencing: Why State Felony Jury Sentencing Threatens the Right to a Jury Trial, 2011 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1359.
Abstract: Jury sentencing may offer an alternative to traditional judicial sentencing models, but at what cost? After the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey that only a jury can find aggravating factors that increase a defendant’s sentence beyond the statutory maximum, interest in the possibilities of jury sentencing in noncapital cases has resurfaced in the scholarly community. In the states where jury sentencing procedures are utilized, however, prosecutors often use the threat of jury sentencing mechanisms to undermine defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. This Note examines the problems with jury sentencing mechanisms, particularly when a jury sentence is mandatory in conjunction with a jury trial, and it disputes the notion that the Apprendi line of cases supports an increased sentencing role for jurors under the Sixth Amendment.
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