Sixth Amendment - Assembling a Jury Willing To Impose the Death Penalty - A New Disregard for a Capital Defendant's Rights

• NCJ Number: 103077
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 76 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1985) Pages: 1027-1050
• Author(s): P J Callans
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 24 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

In Witherspoon v. Illinois, the U.S. Supreme Court held that prospective jurors could not be excluded simply because they had general objections to capital punishment. In Wainwright v. Witt, the Court held that a prospective juror may properly be excluded for cause when his views would prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror.

Abstract

The decision in Witt suggests that the State now has increased power to exclude jurors who might hesitate to vote for the death penalty. Further, the capital defendant may now be faced with a jury purged of all persons whose views on capital punishment would invest their deliberations with greater seriousness and gravity or make their decision to impose the death penalty more psychologically or emotionally difficult. Thus, the balance of opposing interests established in the Witherspoon decision has been tipped. While focusing on the State's interest in carrying out its statutory sentencing schemes, the Court has ignored the basic protections that Witherspoon provided for a capital defendant's life. 150 notes.