\u3cem\u3eFurman\u3c/em\u3e\u27s Legacy: New Challenges to the Overbreadth of Capital Punishment

A 2018 decision in the Arizona Supreme Court raised new strong claims that the death penalty in the U.S. has become a fatal lottery, with critical implications for its constitutionality and its future in American criminal law. In the case, Hidalgo v. Arizona, the defense provided preliminary evidence that over the past twenty years, nearly 98% of all first- and second-degree murder defendants in Maricopa County-the state\u27s largest county and location of the nation\u27s fifth largest city-were death-eligible. The Arizona Supreme Court conceded this point even as it rejected Mr. Hidalgo\u27s appeal. What the Arizona Supreme Court conceded, and what the evidence showed, was the expansive criteria for death eligibility made it impossible for states to perform the \u27constitutionally necessary\u27 narrowing function at the stage of legislative definition to prevent a pattern of arbitrary and capricious sentencing