Last updated on: 3/6/2019 | Author: ProCon.org

Kent Scheidegger, JD Biography

Title:
Legal Director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation
Position:
Pro to the question "Should the Death Penalty Be Legal?"
Reasoning:

“The death penalty serves three functions. First, for some crimes any lesser punishment is inadequate as a matter of basic justice…

Second, an executed death sentence absolutely guarantees the killer will never kill again. A life sentence does not. There are many cases of people killed by murderers who were paroled, escaped, killed within prison, or who arranged murders from within the prison…

Third, I believe that an effective, enforced death penalty deters some murders.”

“Spring 2001: Does Capital Punishment Have a Future?,” National Online Youth Summit of the American Bar Association (accessed Aug. 7, 2008)
Involvement and Affiliations:
  • Executive Committee member, Criminal Law and Procedure Practice Group, Federalist Society, 1996-present
  • Legal Director, Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, Dec. 1986-present
  • Chairman, Federalist Society Criminal Law Practice Group, 2003-2005
  • General Counsel, California Cooler, Inc., 1984-1986
  • Civil Law Practice, Northern California, 1982-1984
  • Nuclear Research Officer, United States Air Force, 1976-1982
Education:
  • JD, McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific, 1982
  • BS, Physics, New Mexico State University, 1976
Other:

Wrote an amicus curiae brief in the following US Supreme Court cases:

  • Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288 (1989)
  • McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U.S. 467 (1991)
  • Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U.S. 808 (1991)
  • Tuilaepa v. California, 512 U.S. 967 (1994)
  • Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472 (1995)
  • Felker v. Turpin, 518 U.S. 651 (1996)
  • Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362 (2000)
  • Connecticut Dept. of Public Safety v. Doe, 538 U.S. 1 (2003)
  • Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35 (2008)
  • Cullen v. Pinholster, 131 S. Ct. 1388 (2011)