Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-7955_aplc.pdf
Page Number: 47.0

Cite as:  576 U. S. ____ (2015) 

7 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

Ms.  Brouk  at  gunpoint,  he  and  his  accomplice  drove  the
family to a remote pond, where Christeson cut Ms. Brouk’s
throat with a bone knife.  State v. Christeson, 50 S. W. 3d 
251,  257–258  (Mo.  2001).    Although  bleeding  profusely,
she stayed alive long enough to tell her children she loved 
them  and  to  watch  as  Christeson  murdered  them—her 
son,  by  cutting  his  throat  twice  and  drowning  him;  her 
daughter, by pressing down on her throat until she suffo-
cated.  Ibid.    Christeson  and  his  accomplice  then  threw 
Ms.  Brouk—alive  but  barely  breathing—into  the  pond  to 
drown  on  top  of  her  dead  children.    Ibid.
  This  Court 
granted him a stay of execution.  Christeson v. Roper, 574 
U. S. ___ (2014).  Lisa Ann Coleman was not so lucky.  She 
was  executed  on  September  17,  2014,  for  murdering  her 
girlfriend’s  son,  9-year-old  Davontae  Williams,  by  slowly 
starving  him  to  death.    Coleman  v.  State,  2009  WL 
4696064,  *1  (Tex.  Crim.  App.,  Dec.  9,  2009).    When  he 
died,  Davontae  had  over  250  distinct  injuries—including 
cigarette  burns  and  ligature  marks—on  his  36-pound 
frame.  Id., at *2.  Infections from untreated wounds con-
tributed  to  his  other  cause  of  death:  pneumonia.    Id.,  at 
*1–*2.  And Johnny Shane Kormondy, who met his end on
January 15, 2015, did so after he and his two accomplices
invaded  the  home  of  a  married  couple,  took  turns  raping 
the wife and forcing her to perform oral sex at gunpoint—
at  one  point,  doing  both  simultaneously—and  then  put  a
bullet  in  her  husband’s  head  during  the  final  rape.    Kor-
mondy  v.  Secretary,  Fla.  Dept.  of  Corrections,  688  F. 3d 
1244, 1247–1248 (CA11 2012). 

Some  of  our  most  “egregious”  cases  have  been  those  in 
which  we  have  granted  relief  based  on  an  unfounded 
Eighth Amendment claim.  For example, we have granted 
relief in a number of egregious cases based on this Court’s 
decision  in  Atkins  v.  Virginia,  536  U. S.  304  (2002),  ex-
empting  certain  “mentally  retarded”  offenders  from  the 
death  penalty.  Last  Term,  the  Court  granted  relief  to  a