ARIZONA/USA

La Corte Suprema riesaminer� 27 casi di condannati a morte.

WASHINGTON, 4 APR - La Corte suprema dello Stato dell'Arizona ha deciso di sottoporre a una revisione i casi di 27 condannati a morte.

L'anno scorso la Corte aveva dichiarato anticostituzionale la legge dello Stato sull'applicazione della pena capitale. La vecchia legge affidava al giudice, e non alla giuria, il compito di decidere la condanna nei casi in cui e' prevista la pena di morte.

I detenuti nei bracci della morte avevano chiesto l'archiviazione di tutte le sentenze in base a quella decisione.

La Corte ha respinto la richiesta, affermando che i processi furono regolari in tutti tranne, forse, 27 casi.

04-APR-03 01

ARIZONA: Ariz. Court to Review Death Penalty Cases

The Arizona Supreme Court said Thursday it will review the death sentences of 27 inmates to determine whether the men should be resentenced.

The inmates had wanted their convictions and sentences thrown out because of a U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year. That ruling found Arizona's old death sentencing law unconstitutional because judges, not jurors, decided the sentence.

However, the state's high court said the trials were fundamentally fair and that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling didn't require throwing out all the sentences. But it said the court must now review each case to determine whether individual circumstances require resentencings.

Prosecutors have argued it was a "harmless error" that juries did not decide aggravating factors in the cases.

In response to the Supreme Court ruling, the Arizona Legislature last summer rewrote the death penalty sentencing law to have juries decide both the facts that should be considered and the actual sentence.

On the Net: Arizona Supreme Court: http://www.supreme.state.az.us