Opinion ID: 1271655
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Death Is A Cruel And Unusual Punishment Because An Enlightened Public Opinion Has Overwhelmingly Repudiated It.

Text: The brief of the amicus curiae does not define its term, enlightened. The implication, reasonably drawn from it, is that an enlightened person is one who opposes the death penalty. Only on this hypothesis can the statement that enlightened public opinion has repudiated the death penalty be found true. Since Furman v. Georgia, supra, was decided on 29 June 1972, according to the brief of the amicus curiae, twenty states, scattered over the entire country, have reinstated capital punishment by legislation. In addition to our own decision in State v. Waddell, supra, Delaware has retained the death penalty by judicial decision, holding its Mercy Statute severable from its earlier Murder Statute. State v. Dickerson, supra. Thus, there are now twenty-two states which have made some provision, since Furman, to inflict the death penalty for one or more offenses. According to the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Powell in Furman v. Georgia, supra, 408 U.S. at p. 417, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346, approximately six hundred individuals were in state and Federal prisons, throughout the country, under sentence of death at the time Furman was decided. Many others, including six in North Carolina (one under two death sentences) had had their death sentences reduced to life imprisonment just a short time earlier, by virtue of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Jackson, 390 U.S. 570, 88 S.Ct. 1209, 20 L.Ed.2d 138, and Pope v. United States, 392 U.S. 651, 88 S.Ct. 2145, 20 L.Ed.2d 1317. (See: State v. Childs, 280 N.C. 576, 187 S.E.2d 78; State v. Roseboro, 279 N.C. 391, 183 S.E.2d 108; State v. Sanders, 279 N.C. 389, 183 S.E.2d 107; State v. Williams, 279 N.C. 388, 183 S.E.2d 106; State v. Atkinson, 279 N.C. 386, 183 S.E.2d 106; State v. Atkinson, 279 N.C. 385, 183 S.E.2d 105; State v. Hill, 279 N.C. 371, 183 S.E.2d 97.) As above noted, twenty-one have received sentences of death in this State since 18 January 1973. The present record shows that fifty prospective jurors were examined by the State. Of these, five were challenged by the State for cause, due to their expressed unwillingness to return a verdict which would necessitate the imposition of the death penalty under any circumstances. Seven others were challenged peremptorily by the State. Assuming that all of these peremptory challenges were due to the Solicitor's misgivings concerning the views of the prospective jurors as to the death penalty, this record shows that only twenty-four per cent of those called for jury service in this case, in Union County, believed that in no case should the death penalty be imposed. It is thus quite clear, both throughout North Carolina and throughout the nation, that there is widespread opinion that the death penalty is the appropriate punishment for certain crimes. We do not accept the pronouncement by the amicus curiae that this widespread opinion, held by legislators, judges and jurors, is unenlightened.