Court Opinion

ID: 9429400
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:26:39.056805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:19.343221
License: Public Domain

Justice Brennan,
with whom Justice Marshall joins,
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. 158, 227 (1976) (Brennan, J., dissenting), I would deny the petition for certiorari.
Even if I were to accept the prevailing view that the death penalty is constitutionally permissible under certain circumstances, I would nonetheless object to the Court’s summary reversal of the decision of the Court of Appeals. By taking this step, the Court adds to a growing and disturbing trend toward summary disposition of cases involving capital punishment.
When an intervening decision of this Court may affect a lower court’s decision, our practice has generally been to grant the petition for certiorari, vacate the lower court judgment, and remand for further consideration in light of the intervening decision. See, e. g., Wainwright v. Henry, 463 U. S. 1228 (1983). In the present case, as the Court acknowledges, our recent decision in Barclay v. Florida, 463 *88U. S. 939 (1983), plainly bears upon the constitutional questions considered by the Court of Appeals. That the Court today chooses to reverse summarily instead of remanding in light of Barclay, not only contradicts our general practice, but also demonstrates once again the Court's disquieting readiness to dispose of cases involving the death penalty on the merits without benefit of full briefing or oral argument. See Maggio v. Williams, ante, p. 56 (Brennan, J., dissenting).
I dissent.