Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 19, 1994 TAG: 9401190149
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"The touchstone is accuracy and reliability," David Bruck argued on behalf of Jonathan Dale Simmons, sentenced to death after a judge refused to tell jurors he could never be paroled if given a life term.
"It just isn't fair," Bruck contended in his challenge of a South Carolina law that bars juries from learning about some defendants' ineligibility for parole if sentenced to life instead of death.
Only two other states - Virginia and Pennsylvania - similarly bar sentencing juries in death penalty cases from learning about parole ineligibility.
The court's decision, expected by July, probably will affect the Virginia and Pennsylvania laws as well.
Justices David Souter and John Paul Stevens seemed to agree with Bruck's assessment of the South Carolina law.
"When [jurors are] choosing between death and life imprisonment, they don't need to know the meaning of life imprisonment?" Souter asked in incredulous tones of state lawyer Richard Harpootlian.
Stevens added: "The state of South Carolina has decided that a half-truth is better than the whole truth."
But when he wasn't being peppered with challenging questions from Souter and Stevens, Harpootlian received some help from Justice Antonin Scalia.
"If we believe in evenhandedness," Scalia said at one point, "you should let the jury know that sometimes `life' means he'll be out walking the streets in 20 years."
Simmons was convicted of the July 1990 beating death of an elderly woman during a burglary at her home.
by CNB