Court Opinion

ID: 9431688
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:32:58.156238+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:29.695143
License: Public Domain

Justice Marshall,
dissenting.
Adhering to my view that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153, 231 (1976), (Marshall, J., dissenting), I would grant the petition for certiorari and vacate the death sentence in this case.
Even if I did not hold this view, I would dissent from the Court’s decision today to affirm summarily the decision below. I continue to believe that summary dispositions deprive litigants of a fair opportunity to be heard on the merits and create a significant risk that the Court is rendering an erroneous or ill-advised decision that may confuse the lower courts. See Pennsylvania v. Bruder, 488 U. S. 9, 11 (1988) (Marshall, J., dissenting); Rhodes v. Stewart, 488 U. S. 1, 4 (1988) (Marshall, J., dissenting); Buchanan v. Stanships, Inc., 485 U. S. 265, 269 (1988) (Marshall, J., dissenting); Commissioner v. McCoy, 484 U. S. 3, 7 (1987) (Marshall, J., dissenting). This risk of error is particularly unacceptable in capital cases where a man’s life is at stake. I dissent.