Washington - A death row inmate in South Carolina has been spared because the judge refused to tell the jury the accused would have no chance of parole if sentenced to life, Patrick Smyth reports.
The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on Tuesday that the jury was entitled to know the accused would not be released and therefore not pose a threat to the public.
"Whenever future dangerousness is at issue . . . due process requires that the jury be informed that a life sentence carries no possibility of parole, " Justice Ruth Ginsberg wrote for the majority.
The jury had asked the trial judge in the case of Wesley Shafer, convicted of shooting a shop owner, what the possibility of parole was and were told it was none of their business.