Court Opinion

ID: 9427349
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:20:28.125629+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:06.511365
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Blackmun,
concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
I join Part I of the Court’s opinion and concur in the judgment. In accord with my views stated separately in Lockett v. Ohio, ante, p. 613, I would reverse the judgment of the Ohio Supreme Court insofar as it upheld the imposition of the death penalty on petitioner Bell. Petitioner was charged, inter alia, as an aider and abettor in the murder of Julius Graber, and the trial court’s judgment was sustained on that basis by the Ohio Supreme Court. 48 Ohio St. 2d 270, 278, 358 N. E. 2d 556, 563 (1976). Accordingly, I would find the Ohio capital penalty statute deficient in failing to allow consideration of the degree of petitioner’s involvement, and the character of his mens rea, in the crime.