Court Opinion

ID: 9428176
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:22:59.919783+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:12.102831
License: Public Domain

Justice White,
dissenting.
I dissent from the denial of certiorari in these cases. I would vacate the judgment in each case insofar as it affirmed the imposition of the death sentence and would remand for reconsideration in light of Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U. S. 420 (1980). The judgment in each case was entered prior to our decision in Godfrey. In each case, the jury found two statutory aggravating circumstances which permit imposition of the death penalty under Georgia law, one of which was that involved in Godfrey. In each case the Georgia Supreme Court sustained both circumstances in its mandatory review of the sentence.
We have remanded such cases before, and we should do so now. This would allow the Georgia Supreme Court in the first instance to determine whether the death penalty should be sustained without regard to the validity of the Godfrey circumstance. I would not make that determination here, as the Court is apparently doing; for I do not understand the Georgia cases cited by Justice Stevens to hold either that the Georgia Supreme Court is without power to set aside a death penalty if it sustains only one of the aggravating circumstances found by the jury or that, although the court has that power, it invariably will not disturb the death penalty in such situations. Of course, the Georgia Supreme Court could avoid any such question if on remand it found sufficient grounds to sustain the Godfrey aggravating circumstance.
*1003Nor do I believe that the Constitution requires the Georgia Supreme Court to vacate the sentences if it fails to sustain the Godfrey aggravating circumstance. The cases now before us involve only sentencing, not guilt or innocence, and there is no constitutional right to jury sentencing. The imposition of a death sentence, despite a failure to sustain all of the aggravating circumstances found by the jury, does not conflict with either Stromberg v. California, 283 U. S. 359 (1931), or Street v. New York, 394 U. S. 576 (1969). The Georgia Supreme Court has held that under Georgia law it has the power to determine whether or not a death sentence should be imposed under these circumstances. As I see it, this does not violate the United States Constitution.