Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/450/1014/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 10:57:07+00:00

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surely no reason for this Court to avoid its responsibility of resolving a case as important to the integrity of our judicial system as this.
Jurek is no stranger to this Court. In early 1974, Jurek was convicted by a jury of the murder of a 10-year-old girl and sentenced to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed, rejecting Jurek's contention that his oral and two written confessions were involuntary and should not have been admitted into evidence. Jurek v. State, 522 S.W.2d 934 (1975). We granted certiorari to decide only whether Texas' death penalty statute was constitutional and affirmed, finding that the statute satisfied the principles announced in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S. 238 (1972). Jurek v. Texas, 428 U. S. 262 (1976). Jurek then unsuccessfully sought a writ of habeas corpus in the state courts. We denied his petition for a writ of certiorari, after granting a temporary stay of execution pending timely filing for that writ. Jurek v. Estelle, 430 U.S. 951 (1977).
would have held all of the confessions involuntary. Judges Brown and Reavely filed separate opinions, joined by 8 and 8 judges respectively, which would have held all of the confessions voluntary.
Wendy because she refused to have sexual relations with him.
There are several reasons why this case is worthy of review. In the first place, Judge Garza's attempt to distinguish between the first and second written confession is, to me, wholly unpersuasive. Indeed, other than Judge Garza and the three judges who joined him, no one had ever suggested that the second confession was less voluntary than the first. In cases involving multiple confessions, we have held that some of the confessions may be found involuntary and others not only if such a distinction is justified by a sufficiently isolating "break in the stream of events." Darwin v. Connecticut, 391 U. S. 346, 391 U. S. 349. There is no such break here.
difference between the two confessions, but such reliance is misplaced in light of our decisions holding that even a 6-month time difference is not enough to constitute a sufficiently isolating break between two confessions. United States v. Bayer, 331 U. S. 532 (1947). Finally, Judge Garza criticized the police for not informing Jurek that if he admitted to attempting to have sexual relations with Wendy, he "was in effect" signing his "death warrant." 623 F.2d at 935. But even if it were true that the police were seeking the death sentence, our cases have never required the police to give such unsolicited legal advice. In short, nothing in the record reveals any police misconduct or any "coercion" visited upon Jurek. Quite the contrary, their performance strikes me as commendable. The evidence simply does not establish that Jurek's will was overborne or that his confession was not the product of a rational intellect and a free will.
"great weight, of course, is to be accorded to the inferences which are drawn by the state courts. In a dubious case, it is appropriate, with due regard to federal-state relations, that the state court's determination should control."
Culombe v. Connecticut, 367 U. S. 568, 367 U. S. 605 (1961). In this case, the Court of Appeals gave little deference to findings of historical facts, see n. *, supra, much less to the lower court's inferences as to the ultimate issue of voluntariness.
"The writ of habeas corpus has limited scope; the federal courts do not sit to re-try state cases de novo but, rather, to review for violation of federal constitutional standards. In that process, we do not close our eyes to the reality of overwhelming evidence of guilt fairly established in the state court 14 years ago by use of evidence not challenged here; the use of the additional evidence challenged in this proceeding and arguably open to challenge was, beyond reasonable doubt, harmless."
Id. at 407 U. S. 377-378.
statute, the State of Texas, like 34 other States, enacted new death penalty statutes. Those States determined that capital punishment, though an extreme form of punishment, is a suitable sanction for the most extreme of crimes. One of the principal goals of our Federal Government, set forth in the preamble to the Constitution, is "[to] insure domestic tranquility." Whether as means of deterring future crimes or as means of retribution, these States believed that a carefully designed and limited system of capital punishment would be one way of ensuring domestic tranquility.
"[c]onsiderations of federalism, as well as respect for the ability of a legislature to evaluate, in terms of its particular State, the moral consensus concerning the death penalty and its social utility as a sanction, require us to conclude, in the absence of more convincing evidence, that the infliction of death as a punishment for murder is not without justification and thus is not unconstitutionally severe."
428 U.S. at 428 U. S. 186-187 (opinion of STEWART, POWELL and STEVENS, JJ.). The opinion also squarely rejected the notion that "standards of decency" rendered the death penalty unconstitutional, noting that "it is now evident that a large proportion of American society continues to regard it as an appropriate and necessary criminal sanction." Id. at 428 U. S. 179.
their capital punishment statute than they were when they began eight years ago. By overturning Jurek's conviction on the basis of a procedural nicety, the decision below not only renders Texas' death penalty statute an ineffective deterrent, it also frustrates society's compelling interest in having its constitutionally valid laws swiftly and surely carried out. A potential murderer will know that, even if he is convicted and sentenced to death, he will very likely not be put to death. If he litigates the case long enough, the odds favor his finding some court which will accept a legal theory previously rejected by other courts.
"This case presents in dramatic terms the tensions between promoting thorough and efficient enforcement of the laws and ensuring that the rights of the accused are scrupulously guarded. We have on the one hand a murder which could hardly have been more reprehensible; the violent, senseless slaying of a young girl. On the other hand, we have a decision by a panel of this Court throwing out Jurek's two written confessions on the grounds of voluntariness, making it very unlikely that Jurek could again be convicted on retrial."
I agree with Judge Brown that the decision below makes it "very unlikely that Jurek could again be convicted on retrial." Even though Jurek has made at least one "voluntary" confession, he may well escape all punishment for his violent, senseless slaying of a young girl. I, for one, am unwilling to subscribe to a decision of this Court which sanctions such an outcome. I do not think that this Court can, like Pontius Pilate, wash its hands of the numerous issues presented in this case, issues which are bound to arise not merely in this case, but in countless others. I would therefore grant the petition for certiorari and set the case for argument.
* To be sure, there is some dispute as to the facts. The panel found that Jurek was questioned throughout the first night and criticized the police for taking Jurek to Austin, Tex. 593 F.2d 672 (1979). The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the United States District Court, however, found that Jurek was left alone during the night and that Jurek was transferred to Austin at his own request. Thus, the panel clearly ignored the requirement of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) that state-court findings of fact are to be presumed correct. See Sumner v. Mata, 449 U. S. 539 (1981). To the extent Judge Garza's opinion relied on the panel's findings of facts, it too erred.

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