Supreme Court Cases
This case banned the execution of juveniles under 18 by applying evolving standards of decency.
What is Roper v. Simmons?
The phrase “evolving standards of decency” interprets this constitutional provision.
What is the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause?
The Court in Coker and Kennedy held that the death penalty cannot be imposed for this category of crimes.
What are non-homicide crimes against individuals?
A sentencing body must be free to consider all facts that might call for a sentence less than death.
What is the Lockett individualized mitigation principle?
This is an unsigned decision speaking for the Court as an institution.
What is a per curiam decision?
This case required that any factor increasing a defendant’s punishment to death must be found by a jury, not a judge.
What is Ring v. Arizona?
In death cases, courts must consider all relevant mitigating evidence, even if not listed in statute.
What is the Lockett v. Ohio individualized sentencing rule?
The Baze v. Rees standard requires showing this to challenge a method of execution.
What is a substantial risk of serious harm and the existence of a feasible, safer alternative?
In a case where a police officer is killed but the defendant has low IQ, these two types of factors conflict.
What are aggravating vs. mitigating factors?
This order tells a lower court to send the record up for review.
What is a writ of certiorari?
This case held that the death penalty for the rape of an adult woman is disproportionate.
What is Coker v. Georgia?
This principle requires extraordinary procedural fairness in capital cases.
What is “super due process”?
Atkins, Roper, and Hall all rely on this type of constitutional rule.
What are categorical bans based on reduced culpability?
For a felony-murder accomplice like Marcus, this must be decided by a jury before death eligibility.
What is whether he meets the culpability threshold for death?
This hypothesis holds that informed people oppose the death penalty.
What is the Marshall Hypothesis?
This case prohibited execution of the intellectually disabled.
What is Atkins v. Virginia?
Ring v. Arizona strengthened this constitutional right.
What is the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial?
In Gregg v. Georgia, this procedural reform addressed Furman’s arbitrariness.
What is the bifurcated trial system?
A law restricting mitigation only to mental illness or duress violates this principle.
What is Lockett’s rule that all mitigating evidence must be allowed?
This statistical study revealed racial disparities but failed to overturn a death sentence.
What is the Baldus Study in McCleskey v. Kemp?
This case rejected a challenge based on statewide racial disparities, requiring proof of intentional discrimination in the defendant’s own case.
What is McCleskey v. Kemp?
This principle explains why retribution cannot justify executing juveniles or intellectually disabled individuals.
What is reduced moral culpability?
This framework assesses whether punishment aligns with national moral progress and legislative trends.
What are evolving standards of decency and national consensus?
When new evidence shows minimal involvement, this principle requires reconsideration of the death sentence.
What is the duty to consider all relevant mitigating evidence?
This group of Justices in Furman defended the death penalty based on public opinion and law-and-order concerns.
Who were Burger, Blackmun, Powell, and Rehnquist?