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Lawyers Of Convicted Killers Attack Capital Punishment VoteOLYMPIA (AP) ~~ Oral arguments on the first capital punishment ease since the U.S. Supreme Court tightened the limits )n reasons for which jurors may 'ms excluded will be heard Tues-Jay by the State Supremo court.Further constitutional chal-mges are expected then.Leodis Smith and David Washington Riggins, two young Seattle Negroes, were both sentenced to'death by a King County jury in September, 1966, They were convicted of two counts of murder, four counts of robbery, and one count of assault.Errors ClaimedAttorneys for Smith and Riggins cl to some 34 errors thoy claim occurred during the trial.Many are technical points thatare common to most appeals. But several attack the constitutionality of capital punishment.The appeal contends Hie state cannot Impinge on such a fundamental right as life without insuring due process of law. The appeal says due process was violated in the Smith ■ Riggins ease because the punishment Is vengeful and retributive and less drastic forms of punsihment for murder — life imprisonment— for example, exist. It says the jury.was undirected, unlimited and at its oVm discretion in deciding punishment.The state argues equal protection was afforded because the law applies to all persons alike,the constitutionality of permitting the jury to impose the'death pDimity was tested and found correct in at least three cases.The appeal brief says the lack of a post-conviction hearing before sentence was decided resulted in a clash between the defendants’ right to testify and protection against self-incrimination. it said if the defend antswished to present testimony to mitigate the sentence,, it could be possibly used against them in deciding the question to fnit.The state says the accused may take the stand, limit direct testimony to one issue, then Invoke the privilege against se-f-inc rim i nation.De^th Said BarrdSmith and Riggins’ attorneys says the death penalty is barred by the eighth ammeiidmcnt to the constitution which forbids cruel and unusual punish men t. They say {he death penally is ruled out under the provision because of the cruelly Df the wait-far death and for being arbitrary and irrationa, trary and irrational/*The prosecution answers that cruelty refers only to prolonged torture nr Inhumane treatment and unusual relates to a punishment that is substantially different from that provided by similar jurisdictions.The state says 31 state courts and 10 federal courts have considered the constitutional objections to the death penally and the law has been upheld on each occasion.Did Court Err?The appeal brief says the court erred in sustaining the state’s challenge for cause to seating significant numbers of jurors opposed to capital punishment, but who could and would vote guilty in a ffrskdegree murder case if proved.”The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Witherspoon ease’that the death sentence imposed by a jury from which those with conscientious and religious scruples were dismissed can not be executed.
Newspaper Details
Centralia Daily Chronicle
Centralia, Washington, US
Mon, Jun 24, 1968
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
WA, USA 05 Dec 2019
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