McCleskey v. Kemp

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McCleskey v. Kemp
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 15, 1986 Decided April 22, 1987
Full case name: Warren McCleskey v. Kemp, Superintendent, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center Citations: 481 U.S. 279; 107 S. Ct. 1756; 95 L. Ed. 2d 262; 1987 U.S. LEXIS 1817; 55 U.S.L.W. 4537 Prior history: Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Holding
Despite statistical evidence of a profound racial disparity in application of the death penalty, such evidence is insufficient to invalidate defendant's death sentence.
Court membership
Chief Justice: William Rehnquist Associate Justices: William J. Brennan, Jr., Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia
Case opinions
Majority by: Powell Joined by: Rehnquist, White, O'Connor, Scalia Dissent by: Brennan Joined by: Marshall; Blackmun, Stevens (in part) Dissent by: Blackmun Joined by: Marshall, Stevens; Brennan (in pertinent part) Dissent by: Stevens Joined by: Blackmun
Laws applied
Equal protection clause, Title VII

McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987)^[1], was a United States court case, that eventually came before the Supreme Court of the United States, that Coenen ^[2] describes as being the "most far-reaching post-Gregg challenge to capital sentencing".

Contents 1 Background 2 Opinion of the Court 3 Dissenting opinions 4 Impact 5 Later Comments 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading

[edit] Background

Petitioner was convicted of two counts of armed robbery and one count of murder. At the penalty hearing, the jury imposed the death penalty because petitioner did not provide any mitigating circumstances.

On appeal to Federal courts via a habeas petition, petitioner alleged the state's capital sentencing process was administered in a racially discriminatory manner in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Petitioner based his claims on the Baldus study that indicated a risk that racial consideration entered into capital sentencing determinations.

[edit] Opinion of the Court

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Lewis Powell, held that the statistical study did not present substantial evidence that would require a reversal of petitioner's conviction. The Court concluded that the lower court had properly applied Georgia law.

David Baldus, a law professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, studied twenty-five hundred murder cases in Georgia. Baldus’ study established that African Americans convicted of murdering whites had a higher chance of receiving the death penalty. One of his models concludes that, even after taking account of 39 nonracial variables, defendants charged with killing white victims were 4.3 times as likely to receive a death sentence as defendants charged with killing blacks.^{needs cite} Although many sided with Baldus’ study, the Court failed to accept McCleskey’s argument that the findings documented by Baldus rendered the death penalty unconstitutional and racially discriminating.

Particularly salient to McCleskey's claim were figures from the study which showed that although only 9.2% of all Georgia homicides involved black defendants and white victims, prosecutors sought the death penalty in 70% of those cases. Inversely, over 60.7% of all Georgia homicides involved black victims, yet prosecutors sought the death penalty in those cases only 34% of the time. The overall effect was the death penalty being applied to 22% of the black defendants convicted of killing white victims(only 9.2% of all Georgia homicides), versus a roughly 12% death penalty application for all the other categories combined (white defendant & white victim; white defendant & black victim; black defendant & black victim). Most notably, a death penalty conviction was given in only 1% of the cases involving a black victim and a black defendant.

[edit] Dissenting opinions

Three dissenting opinions were filed, by Justices Brennan, Blackmun, and Stevens. The dissenters largely agreed with and cross-joined one anothers' dissents, and Justice Marshall joined two of the dissents.

Brennan's lengthy dissent noted at the outset the belief he shared with Justice Marshall that "the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment forbidden by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments". Brennan further contended that, even if capital punishment were constitutional, this could hardly be so where it was demonstratably biased against members of a particular race.

Blackmun's dissent largely echoed Brennan's concerns regarding the evidence of racial bias in capital cases.

Stevens did not go so far as to suggest that the death penalty was inherently inappropriate under these circumstances, but stated that the case should have been remanded to the Court of Appeals for a determination of the validity of the Baldus study.

[edit] Impact

McClesky v. Kemp has bearing on claims broader than those involving the death penalty. McClesky has been used to illustrate that claims based on government denial of "equal protection of the laws" to racial minorities may fail unless something more than a mere discriminatory effect can be shown. The Supreme Court generally requires, in addition to discriminatory effect, that a discriminatory purpose be shown as the government's motivation for creation the law in the first place. See: Washington v. Davis, 426 US 229 (1976), and Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney, 442 US 256 (1979) for further clarification of this concept. Thus, although a discriminatory effect may be an ingredient of a successful Equal Protection claim, it is probably insufficient on its own. See Palmer v. Thomas, 403 US 217 (1971). Overall, McClesky may be seen to clarify the Supreme Court's desire to punish discriminatory acts by government rather than merely discriminatory effects.

[edit] Later Comments

Justice Lewis Powell, when asked by his biographer if he wanted to change his vote in any case, replied "Yes, McCleskey vs Kemp."^[3]

[edit] See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 481
• Live from Death Row

[edit] References

1. ^ 481 U.S. 279 (Text of the opinion from Findlaw)
2. ^ "McCleskey v. Kemp (1987)". New Georgia Encyclopedia (on-line). (2004). 
3. ^ NY Times Advertisement

[edit] Further reading

• "Race and the Death Penalty: the Tension Between Individualized Justice And Racially Neutral Standards, 2 Texas" (Summer, 1995). Wesleyan Law Review 45: 80 – 95. 
• Chaka M. Patterson (1995). "McClesky v. Kemp".
• Abstract of case
• Case transcript
• Appeal transcript
• Discussion of the death penalty