McCleskey v. Kemp
| McCleskey v. Kemp | ||||||
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 Supreme Court of the United States |
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| Argued October 15, 1986 Decided April 22, 1987 |
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| Full case name | Warren McCleskey v. Kemp, Superintendent, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center | |||||
| Citations | 481 U.S. 279 (more) 107 S. Ct. 1756; 95 L. Ed. 2d 262; 1987 U.S. LEXIS 1817; 55 U.S.L.W. 4537 |
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| Prior history | Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit | |||||
| Holding | ||||||
| Despite the presentation of a statistical model that asserted racial disparity in application of the death penalty, aggregate evidence is insufficient to invalidate an individual defendant's death sentence. | ||||||
| Court membership | ||||||
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| Case opinions | ||||||
| Majority | Powell, joined by Rehnquist, White, O'Connor, Scalia | |||||
| Dissent | Brennan, joined by Marshall; Blackmun, Stevens (in part) | |||||
| Dissent | Blackmun, joined by Marshall, Stevens; Brennan (in pertinent part) | |||||
| Dissent | Stevens, joined by Blackmun | |||||
| Laws applied | ||||||
| Equal protection clause, Title VII | ||||||
McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987),[1] was a United States Supreme Court court case, in which the death penalty sentencing of McCleskey for armed robbery and murder was upheld. The Court said the "racially disproportionate impact" in Georgia death penalty indicated by a comprehensive scientific study was not enough to overturn the guilty verdict without showing a "racially discriminatory purpose."[2]
Dan T. Coenen of University of Georgia School of Law describes McCleskey as being the “most far-reaching post-Gregg challenge to capital sentencing.”[3] NYU Law School's Anthony G. Amsterdam called it “the Dred Scott decision of our time.”[4]
Contents |
[edit] Background
Petitioner, Warren McCleskey, was convicted of two counts of armed robbery and one count of murder in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia. McCleskey was African American; his victim was white Atlanta Police Officer Frank Schlatt. At the sentencing hearing, the jury found that two aggravating circumstances existed beyond a reasonable doubt: the murder was committed during the course of an armed robbery, and the murder was committed upon a police officer engaged in the performance of his duties. A finding of either aggravating circumstance was sufficient to impose the death penalty. Petitioner did not provide any mitigating circumstances, and the jury recommended the death penalty. The court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced petitioner to death.
On appeal to the 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 a study, conducted by jurists David C. Baldus, Charles Pulaski, and statistician George Woodworth (the “Baldus study”), that indicated a risk that racial consideration entered into capital sentencing determinations.[5]
[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 concluded that blacks convicted of murdering whites had a higher chance of receiving the death penalty, although white killers were more likely than black killers to receive the death penalty (because white killers so often chose white victims). One of his models concluded 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.[5]
The McCleskey ruling said that, even if Baldus' statistical data were accepted at face value, the defense failed to show evidence of conscious, deliberate bias by law officials associated with the case, and dismissed evidence of general disparities in sentencing, such as the Baldus study, as "an inevitable part of our criminal justice system."[1]
[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 demonstrably 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
McCleskey v. Kemp has bearing on claims broader than those involving the death penalty. McCleskey 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, McCleskey may be seen to clarify the Supreme Court's desire to punish discriminatory acts by government rather than merely discriminatory effects.
McCleskey was executed in Georgia's electric chair September 28, 1991.[6]
[edit] Later Comments
In a New York Times comment eight days after the decision, Anthony Lewis charged that the Supreme Court had “effectively condoned the expression of racism in a profound aspect of our law.”[7]
Justice Lewis Powell, when asked by his biographer if he wanted to change his vote in any case, replied, "Yes, McCleskey v. Kemp."[4]
In a survey by the Los Angeles Times among liberal legal scholars, McCleskey was named one of the worst Supreme Court decisions since World War II.[8]
[edit] See also
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 481
- List of United States Supreme Court cases
- Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume
- List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court
- Live from Death Row
- Furman v. Georgia
[edit] References
- ^ a b 481 U.S. 279 (Text of the opinion from Findlaw)
- ^ McCleskey v. Kemp opinion. http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9250013508521215438&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr. Retrieved 2010-05-09.
- ^ "McCleskey v. Kemp (1987)" (on-line ed.). 2004.
- ^ a b Liptak, Adam (2008-04-29). "New Look at Death Sentences and Race". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/us/29bar.html.
- ^ a b Baldus, David C.; Pulaski, Charles; Woodworth, George (1983). "Comparative Review of Death Sentences: An Empirical Study of the Georgia Experience". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 74 (3): 661–753. doi:10.2307/1143133. JSTOR 1143133.
- ^ "Warren McCleskey Is Dead". New York Times. September 29, 1991. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/29/opinion/warren-mccleskey-is-dead.html.
- ^ Lewis, Anthony (1987-04-28). "Bowing To Racism". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/28/opinion/abroad-at-home-bowing-to-racism.html.
- ^ Savage, David G. (2008-10-22). "Roe vs. Wade? Bush vs. Gore? What are the worst Supreme Court decisions?". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scotus23-2008oct23,0,1693757.story.
[edit] Further reading
- Amsterdam, Anthony G. (2007). "Race and the Death Penalty Before and After McCleskey". Columbia Human Rights Law Review 39: 34. ISSN 00907944.
- Baldus, David C.; Pulaski, Charles A.; Woodworth, George (1990). Equal Justice and the Death Penalty: A Legal and Empirical Analysis. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1555530567.
- Baldus, David C.; Pulaski, Charles A.; Woodworth, George (1992). "Law and Statistics in Conflict: Reflections on McCleskey v. Kemp". In Kagehiro, Dorothy K.; Laufer, William S. (eds.). Handbook of Psychology and Law. New York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 271–291. ISBN 0387975683.
- Graines, Steven; Wyatt, Justin (2000). "The Rehnquist Court, Legal Process Theory, and McCleskey v. Kemp". American Journal of Criminal Law 28: 1. ISSN 00922315.
- Kennedy, Randall L. (1988). "McCleskey v. Kemp: Race, Capital Punishment, and the Supreme Court". Harvard Law Review 101 (7): 1388–1443. doi:10.2307/1341399.
- Patterson, Chaka M. (1995). "Race and the Death Penalty: the Tension Between Individualized Justice And Racially Neutral Standards". Texas Wesleyan Law Review 2: 80–95. ISSN 10815449. http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/death02.htm.
