our state Supreme Court to determine “[w]hether the sentence of death is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering both the crime and the defendant”); cf. Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U.S. 370, 377, 381-82, 116 S. Ct. 1384, 134 L. Ed. 2d 577 (1996) (in determining whether it is proper for a jury to “ ‘shoulder [the] responsibility [of construction of a written instrument] ... to preserve the substance of the [Seventh Amendment] common-law right of trial by jury,’ ” noting that judges not juries, ordinarily construe written documents (emphasis omitted) (quoting Tull v. United States, 481 U.S. 412, 426, 107 S. Ct. 1831, 95 L. Ed. 2d 365 (1987)); Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 385-86, 84 S. Ct. 1774, 12 L. Ed. 2d 908 (1964) (<HOLDING>). Some have argued that Blakely prohibits the
holding the sixth amendment right to a jury trial applies to the states through the fourteenth amendment holding the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment extends the right to jury trial to defendants in serious criminal cases in state courts holding that states procedure providing for jury evaluation of voluntariness of a defendants confession violates fourteenth amendment due process holding that continued incarceration after the lawful basis for custody expires violates due process under the fourteenth amendment holding that an attempt by a prosecuting attorney to serve two masters violates the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment