Document Type

Supreme Court Commentaries

Publication Date

11-12-2007

Keywords

General

Subject Category

Constitutional Law | Law

Abstract

In Cunningham v. California, the United States Supreme Court voted 6-3 to invalidate California's determinate sentencing law ("DSL") as violative of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court held that, notwithstanding the California Supreme Court's determination to the contrary, the DSL conflicted with prior Supreme Court precedent "by placing sentence-elevating factfinding within the judge's province," thereby "violat[ing] a defendant's right to trial by jury safeguarded by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments."

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