State v. Gerald

The Court today reverses defendant’s capital murder conviction and death sentence. In doing so, the Court determines that a defendant can be considered death-eligible only if he murdered with the intent to kill, and only if he committed the murder by his own conduct. This narrowing of the scope of the class of death-eligible murders is a significant step toward remedying the constitutional infirmities that burden the capital murder-death penalty statute. Of corollary significance, the Court, in departing as it does from the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S.…