Almost five years after his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court, former Justice John Paul Stevens spoke to UF students and the general public Tuesday afternoon about his personal thoughts on topics ranging from the death penalty to the Second Amendment.
Stevens, along with three UF Levin College of Law professors, addressed current issues regarding the U.S. Constitution to a full audience at 12:30 p.m. at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
As part of a lecture series hosted by the law school, Stevens answered questions regarding his recently published book, “Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution,” as well as advocated for states’ rights to regulate gun control.
“I certainly believe the elected representatives of the people should be deciding this, not federal judges at a national level,” he said.
Lyrissa Lidsky, the associate dean for international programs and a professor at the law school, asked Stevens whether he had any regrets during his time on the Supreme Court.
He then went on to discuss his role in a ruling regarding the death penalty.
“One case that I voted incorrectly in, having openly spoke about it many times, was the Texas capital punishment case,” Stevens said, sharing the story of the 1976 Jurek v. Texas case that led to the widespread adoption of the death penalty in the U.S. court system.
He brought up a separate case to further illustrate his point.
“There is a Texas case in which they executed the wrong defendant,” Stevens said. “It is a risk that a civilized society should not allow to develop, which is an adequate reason to amend this practice.”
Natalie Mendez, a 19-year-old UF business sophomore, said she agrees with Stevens and hopes to see the death penalty abolished.
“I don’t think that the government should run the risk of killing innocent people, especially when we run the risk of jailing innocent people,” she said. “That’s something you can’t erase.”
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 1/21/2015 under the headline “Former Supreme Court Justice speaks on capital punishment"]
