NCJ Number
109403
Journal
Criminal Justice Journal Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: (Fall 1987) Pages: 167-181
Date Published
1987
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The U.S. Supreme Court held in the 1987 decision in Tison v. Arizona that a defendant can be sentenced to death for taking part in the events that precede a murder even when the defendant did not specifically intend to kill the victim nor actually inflict the fatal gunshot wound.
Abstract
The Tison brothers were helping their father and his cellmate, both convicted murderers, escape from prison. The two convicts killed some passing motorists who stopped to help them when their tire blew out. The Arizona Supreme Court found that the Tison brothers did not specifically intend to kill, did not plot the homicides in advance, and did not actually pull the trigger on the gun that inflicted the fatal wounds. However, it found that the requisite intent did exist, based on the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Enmund v. Florida. The majority of the U.S. Supreme Court rejected this interpretation of Enmund. Instead, it broadened the degree of culpability required to validate the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment. Sufficient culpability would now include both major participation in the felony committed and reckless indifference to human life. This deviation for the strict requirement of intent has the effect of undermining safeguards imposed in the past with regard to capital punishment and thereby shifting the balance between the felony murder rule and the death penalty. 71 references.