Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-7955_aplc.pdf
Page Number: 66

16 

GLOSSIP v. GROSS 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

Review, and Claims of Fairness (with Lessons from Wash­
ington State), 79 Wash. L. Rev. 775, 791–792 (2004) (after 
Pulley,  many  States  repealed  their  statutes  requiring 
comparative  proportionality  review,  and  most  state  high
courts  “reduced  proportionality  review  to  a  perfunctory
exercise” (internal quotation marks omitted)).

The studies bear out my own view, reached after consid­
ering  thousands  of  death  penalty  cases  and  last-minute
petitions  over  the  course  of  more  than  20  years.    I  see 
discrepancies  for  which  I  can  find  no  rational  explana­
tions.  Cf.  Godfrey,  446  U. S.,  at  433  (plurality  opinion) 
(“There  is  no  principled  way  to  distinguish  this  case,  in 
which  the  death  penalty  was  imposed,  from  the  many
cases in which it was not”).  Why does one defendant who 
committed  a  single-victim  murder  receive  the  death  pen­
alty (due to aggravators of a prior felony conviction and an
after-the-fact  robbery),  while  another  defendant  does  not, 
despite  having  kidnapped,  raped,  and  murdered  a  young 
mother while leaving her infant baby to die at the scene of 
the  crime.  Compare  State  v.  Badgett,  361  N. C.  234,  644 
S. E. 2d 206 (2007), and Pet. for Cert. in Badgett v. North 
Carolina,  O. T.  2006,  No.  07–6156,  with  Charbonneau, 
Andre Edwards Sentenced to Life in Prison for 2001 Mur­
der,  WRAL,  Mar.  26,  2004,  online  at  http://www.wral. 
com/news/local/story/109648.  Why does one  defendant  who
committed  a  single-victim  murder  receive  the  death  pen­
alty  (due  to  aggravators  of  a  prior  felony  conviction  and 
acting  recklessly  with  a  gun),  while  another  defendant
does  not,  despite  having  committed  a  “triple  murder”  by
killing  a  young  man  and  his  pregnant  wife?  Compare 
Commonwealth  v.  Boxley,  596  Pa.  620,  948  A.  2d  742 
(2008),  and  Pet.  for  Cert.,  O. T.  2008,  No.  08–6172,  with 
Shea,  Judge  Gives  Consecutive  Life  Sentences  for  Triple
Murder, Philadelphia Inquirer, June 29, 2004, p. B5.  For 
that matter, why does one defendant who participated in a 
single-victim  murder-for-hire  scheme  (plus  an  after-the­