Court Opinion

ID: 9426890
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:19:11.976985+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:03.660641
License: Public Domain

Mr. Chief Justice Burger,
concurring.
I join the opinion of the Court. A crucial factor in this case, for me, is that, as the Court’s opinion recites, when petitioner committed the crime, a Florida statute permitted the death penalty for the offense. Petitioner was at least constructively on notice that this penalty might indeed follow his actions. During the time which elapsed between the commission of the offense and the trial, the statute was *304changed to provide different procedures for determining whether death was an appropriate punishment. But these new procedures, taken as a whole, were, if anything, more favorable to the petitioner; consequently the change cannot be read otherwise than as the Court’s opinion suggests.