MCCLESKEY V. KEMP
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This research paper discusses and analyzes the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the case of McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987), which revealed that the Court was at that time unable or unwilling to come to grips with the problem of racial discrimination in sentencing decisions imposing the death penalty. In a poorly reasoned opinion, written for the majority by Justice Lewis Powell, the Court largely discounted substantial statistical and other evidence documenting a pattern of discrimination against blacks in capital punishment cases in Georgia. By its 5-4 decision, the Court largely reversed itself, and completed its retreat from its decision fifteen years before in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 33 L. Ed. 341 (1972) in which it laid the framework for abolishing capital punishment unless the states could liberate themselves from their historical racial biases in capital cases. In Furman v. Georgia, the Court considered the petitions of three black defendants, one convicted of rape and one of murder in Georgia and one convicted of rape in Texas, all of whom had been sentenced to death by state trial courts. In an unusual per curiam, opinion, all nine Justices wrote opinions, five in favor and four against striking down the state statutes involved on the grounds that the way in which they imposed the death penalty constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
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lack man who was tried and convicted by a Fulton County Court for the murder of a white police officer committed during an armed robbery of a furniture store in Atlanta on May 13, 1978. The statute under which McCleskey was tried and sentenced, Ga. Code Ann. sec. 17-10-30(c) (1982), bifurcated the trial into a trial on guilt or innocence and a separate sentencing proceeding. The jury could only recommend the death penalty if it found that aggravating circumstances were present, which it identified as a murder committed during the course of an armed robbery and the murder of a peace officer in the performance of its duty. They were required to, and considered, mitigating circumstances relating to the defendant. Defendant was guaranteed an automatic right of appeal to the state Supreme Court which upheld the conviction. A federal district court held a hearing on defendant's writ of habeas corpus and denied his petition. The District Court's decision was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals on the grounds that McCleskey had failed to demonstrate unconstitutional discrimination or the irrationality, arbitrariness or capriciousness by the jury or the local trial judge. The Supreme Court granted certiorari, 478 U.S. 1019 (1986
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Scott Sanford, Justice Powell, Supreme Court, Fifth Amendment, Paul Stevens, Code Ann, William Rehnquist, McCleskey Kemp, Charles Pulaski, Georgia Court, death penalty, capital punishment, supreme court, mccleskey kemp, baldus study, racial discrimination, furman georgia, capital sentencing, eighth fourteenth, equal protection, coker georgia 433, 101 harvard rev, 428 153 1976, georgia 433 584, recommend death penalty,
Approximate Word count = 1872
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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