McCleskey v. Kemp
Encyclopedia
McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279
(1987), 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."
Dan T. Coenen of University of Georgia School of Law
describes McCleskey as being the “most far-reaching post-Gregg
challenge to capital sentencing
.” NYU Law School's
Anthony G. Amsterdam
called it “the Dred Scott decision of our time.”
; 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.
, 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.
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."
, 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 Amendment
s." 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.
, 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.
charged that the Supreme Court had “effectively condoned the expression of racism in a profound aspect of our law.”
Justice Lewis Powell
, when asked by his biographer if he wanted to change his vote in any case, replied, "Yes, McCleskey v. Kemp."
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
.
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(1987), was a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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."
Dan T. Coenen of University of Georgia School of Law
University of Georgia School of Law
The University of Georgia School of Law is a graduate school of the University of Georgia. Founded in 1859 and located in Athens, Georgia, USA, Georgia Law was formerly known as the Lumpkin School of Law. The Law School is the second oldest of the University's schools and colleges. The University...
describes McCleskey as being the “most far-reaching post-Gregg
Gregg v. Georgia
Gregg v. Georgia, Proffitt v. Florida, Jurek v. Texas, Woodson v. North Carolina, and Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 153 , reaffirmed the United States Supreme Court's acceptance of the use of the death penalty in the United States, upholding, in particular, the death sentence imposed on Troy Leon...
challenge to capital sentencing
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
.” NYU Law School's
New York University School of Law
The New York University School of Law is the law school of New York University. Established in 1835, the school offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in law, and is located in Greenwich Village, in the New York City borough of Manhattan....
Anthony G. Amsterdam
Anthony G. Amsterdam
Anthony G. Amsterdam is an American lawyer and Professor of Law at New York University School of Law.Working with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Amsterdam argued and won Furman v. Georgia in 1972, in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on the requirement for a degree...
called it “the Dred Scott decision of our time.”
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 AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
; 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
David C. Baldus
David Christopher Baldus was a Joseph B. Tye professor of law at the University of Iowa. He held the position from 1969 until his death in 2011...
, Charles Pulaski, and statistician George Woodworth (the “Baldus study”), that indicated a risk that racial consideration entered into capital sentencing determinations.
Opinion of the Court
The Court, in an opinion by Justice Lewis PowellLewis Franklin Powell, Jr.
Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He developed a reputation as a judicial moderate, and was known as a master of compromise and consensus-building. He was also widely well regarded by contemporaries due to his personal good manners and...
, 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
University of Iowa College of Law
The University of Iowa College of Law is one of the eleven professional graduate schools at the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. Founded in 1865, it is the oldest law school in continuous operation west of the Mississippi River. The law school was ranked as the 27th best law school...
, 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.
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."
Dissenting opinions
Three dissenting opinions were filed by Justices BrennanWilliam J. Brennan, Jr.
William Joseph Brennan, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1956 to 1990...
, Blackmun
Harry Blackmun
Harold Andrew Blackmun was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 until 1994. He is best known as the author of Roe v. Wade.- Early years and professional career :...
, and Stevens
John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from December 19, 1975 until his retirement on June 29, 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the oldest member of the Court and the third-longest serving justice in the Court's history...
. The dissenters largely agreed with and cross-joined one anothers' dissents, and Justice Marshall
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...
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
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual...
and Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
s." 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.
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. DavisWashington v. Davis
Washington v. Davis, , was a United States Supreme Court case regarding the application of the Due Process Clause. Two African Americans had applied for positions in the Washington, DC police department, and sued after being turned down...
, 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.
Later Comments
In a New York Times comment eight days after the decision, Anthony LewisAnthony Lewis
Anthony Lewis is a prominent liberal intellectual, writing for The New York Times op-ed page and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. He was previously a columnist for the Times . Before that he was London bureau chief , Washington, D.C...
charged that the Supreme Court had “effectively condoned the expression of racism in a profound aspect of our law.”
Justice Lewis Powell
Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.
Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He developed a reputation as a judicial moderate, and was known as a master of compromise and consensus-building. He was also widely well regarded by contemporaries due to his personal good manners and...
, when asked by his biographer if he wanted to change his vote in any case, replied, "Yes, McCleskey v. Kemp."
In a survey by the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
among liberal legal scholars, McCleskey was named one of the worst Supreme Court decisions since World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
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 RowLive from Death RowLive from Death Row, published in May 1995, is a collection of memoirs by American death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. Publishers Addison-Wesley gave Abu-Jamal a $30,000 advance for the novel, prompting Maureen Faulkner, the widow of Daniel Faulkner, the Philadelphia Police Officer whom Abu-Jamal...
- Furman v. GeorgiaFurman v. GeorgiaFurman v. Georgia, was a United States Supreme Court decision that ruled on the requirement for a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty. The case led to a de facto moratorium on capital punishment throughout the United States, which came to an end when Gregg v. Georgia was...