Court Opinion

ID: 9736250
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:48:47.256715+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:05.317381
License: Public Domain

Rraucher, J.
(concurring). I join in the opinion and decision of the court, but I cannot rid myself of doubt whether, if *672I relied solely on “contemporary standards of decency,” “I would be enforcing my private view rather than that consensus of society’s opinion which ... is the standard enjoined by the Constitution.” Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, 329 U.S. 459, 471 (1947) (concurring opinion of Frankfurter, J.). Not only is there profound disagreement on the question whether the death penalty should ever be imposed; there is also disagreement among those who favor the death penalty as to what circumstances make it appropriate. But those disagreements reinforce the court’s second ground of decision. In our criminal justice system responsibility for answering those questions is so diffused that the answers inevitably will be inconsistent, like cases will not be treated alike, and the penalty will be arbitrarily inflicted. Even if the judicial branch could administer the death penalty fairly and with reasonable certainty and expedition, neither we nor the Legislature could control either executive clemency or Federal intervention.
I find particularly persuasive the recent course of events. In the four years since the decision in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976), “hundreds have been placed on death row” but “only three persons have been executed.” Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 439 at nn.8, 9 (1980) (concurring opinion of Marshall, s.). Even in the rare case where the sentence has been carried out, it has been carried out only after “one or more agonizing stays of execution.” Lenhard v. Wolff, 444 U.S. 807, 811 n.2 (1979) (dissenting opinion of Marshall, J.). The threat of death constitutes punishment in itself. Cf. Gilmore v. Utah, 429 U.S. 1012, 1013 n. 1 (1976) (concurring opinion of Burger, C.J.) (defendant’s only complaint was with respect to the delay in carrying out the sentence). It is not suggested that punishment by threat serves a useful purpose if the threat is never carried out; its utility must rest instead on the utility of the threatened execution. Punishment is cruel when it involves “a lingering death.” In re Kemmler, 136 U.S. 436, 447 (1890). See Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, 329 U.S. 459, 463-464 n.4 (1947). Since death sentences will rarely be *673carried out, and since they will be carried out only after agonizing months and years of uncertainty, the punishment is cruel and unusual and violates art. 26 of the Declaration of Rights.