CRM/LAW C165 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Harry Blackmun, William Rehnquist, Intellectual Disability
3 May 2018
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Gregg v. Georgia
• Gregg v. Georgia 1976
o upheld Georgia’s guided discretion statutes
o features of the statute
▪ bifurcation
▪ aggravating factors
▪ appellate review
▪ including proportionality review
▪ “passion, prejudice” review
o opinion by Steward, joined by Powell and Stevens
o Rehnquist, White, Burger & Blackmun concur
o dissent by Brennan and Marshall
• Gary Gilmore
o first post-Furman execution 1977
o volunteer
o Mailer, The Executioner’s Song
• 1977-1982
o chart shows death penalty slow to start up again after Gregg
o 15 major death penalty decisions by Supreme Court
o all but one vacated death sentence
o 1979, Spenkelink, first non-volunteer, post-Gregg execution in Florida
• Coker v. Georgia 1977
o death penalty unconstitutional for rape of an adult woman
o Kennedy v. Louisiana 2008
▪ death penalty unconstitutional for rape of 8 year old child
• Lockett
o Lockett v. Ohio 1978
o Sandra Lockett, 21 year old woman convicted of murder and sentenced to death
for her participation in a pawnshop robbery
o she rejected repeated plea offers
o 4-vote plurality (Burger + “troika” [Powell, Stevens, Stewart])
▪ one of those opinions that Burger “took”
▪ Ohio’s statute unconstitutionally limited consideration of mitigating
circumstances
▪ sentence cannot be precluded from considering any aspect of a defendant’s
character or record and any circumstances of crime that call for sentence
less than death – here, for example, her age and lack of specific intent to
cause death
• Eddings
o Eddings v. Oklahoma 1982
o 16 year old Monty Eddings ran away from home in Missouri with some younger
kids
o when their car was pulled over by the police, Eddings killed the officer
o Eddings had a troubled background; his mother was an alcoholic and possibly a
prostitute; his father beat him; he was emotionally disturbed
o trial judge refused to consider evidence of Eddings’ troubled background
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