The Shifting of the Supreme Court of Georgia's Death Penalty Decisions from 1998-2003

I. INTRODUCTION This high court study examines the Supreme Court of Georgia's death penalty rulings from 1998 to 2003. The Court's death penalty jurisprudence during this period includes over thirty-one majority opinions and the accompanying concurrences and dissents. These divided opinions facilitate analysis of the individual justices' positions on the significant issues. (1) Georgia's Constitution provides guidelines for both the composition of the Court through elections--[t]he Supreme Court shall consist of not more than nine Justices who shall elect from among themselves a Chief ... and a Presiding Justice (2)--and the requirement that [a] majority shall be necessary to hear and determine cases. (3) The public elects the members of the Georgia Supreme Court for six-year terms. (4) The Chief and Presiding of the Court are then elected by the other members of the Court and serve a two-year term. (5) Both the Chief and Presiding are eligible for re-election to serve a second two-year term. (6) Notably, the Court's composition has remained the same since July 1995. (7) The Supreme Court, Georgia's highest tribunal, has exclusive appellate jurisdiction over [a]ll cases involving the construction ... of the Constitution of the State of Georgia or of the United States and all cases in which the constitutionality of a law, ordinance, or constitutional provision has been drawn in question. (8) In addition, the Court has jurisdiction over [a]ll cases in which a sentence of death was imposed or could be imposed. (9) Prior to the Court's imposition of a death sentence, Georgia law requires a jury to find at least one statutory aggravating circumstance, (10) and recommend the death penalty to the trial court. (11) Pursuant to Georgia statutory law, the Supreme Court of Georgia must undertake a proportionality review for each death sentence to determine [w]hether the sentence of death is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering both the crime and the defendant. (12) Since Georgia's first documented use of capital punishment in 1735, the method of has changed several times. (13) From 1735 to 1925, over 500 defendants were executed by hanging, the method of execution during that period. (14) In 1924, the Georgia General Assembly banned death by hanging and replaced it with the electric chair, which remained the legal instrument of until 2000. (15) As a result of Georgia House Bill 1284, the means of has been lethal injection since May 1, 2000. (16) Between 1998 and 2003, twelve of Georgia's death row inmates were executed, and thirty-six inmates have been executed in the state from 1976 through July 2004. (17) It is beneficial to ascertain the underlying political and social stances of the members of the Court in order to appreciate Georgia's fundamental laws and policies. (18) Given the members of the Court and its controversial death penalty decisions, this study seeks to provide insight into the individual justices' sentiments, as well as project the degree to which retirements and reelections may affect the future of Georgia's death penalty jurisprudence. II. METHODOLOGY For this high court study, the voting records for published death penalty convictions and sentencing decisions during the years 1998-2003 were researched. Though this method provides only a limited view of the Court system, it does serve to illustrate several unique moments in the Court's history. For example, the State imposed an unofficial three-year on executing inmates from 1998-2001 while the Court struggled with Georgia's use of the electric chair. (19) It was during this moratorium period that seventy-four percent of the separate opinions studied were handed down, a statistic that exemplifies the divisiveness of capital punishment methods. (20) In 2001, the landmark Dawson v. …