ABSTRACT
In the United States, capital punishment is reserved for a narrow category of defendants considered the “worst of the worst,” namely, those whose crimes are so heinous that they are deemed deserving of the death penalty. In the 1970s, the United States Supreme Court recognized that the arbitrariness and unfairness that infused the determination of death eligibility violated the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the imposition of cruel and unusual punishments. Abolishing the death penalty is not advisable because there are some offenders whose conduct warrants this punishment. Retribution depends on proportionality, that is, a reasoned deliberation concerning whether a punishment is proportionate to a particular crime.
