SCHIRO v. INDIANA
No. 89-5327
Supreme Court of the United States
493 U.S. 910
Even if the juries were aware of their obligation to consider mitigating evidence, the instructions provided absolutely no guidance on what constitutes relevant mitigating evidence or how the juries should have considered such evidence. “Mitigating evidence” is a term of art, with a constitutional meaning that is unlikely to be apparent to a lay jury. See Franklin v. Lynaugh, 487 U. S. 164, 188 (1988) (O‘CONNOR, J., concurring in judgment) (“We have defined mitigating circumstances as facts about the defendant‘s character or background, or the circumstances of the particular offense, that may call for a penalty less than death“). If it is possible for judges to misconstrue the term and exclude relevant mitigating evidence, see Eddings v. Oklahoma, supra, at 113-114, it seems probable that a jury operating without adequate guidance could do the same. The imposition of the death penalty should not be contingent on a particular jury‘s unguided understanding of a legal term of art. When a trial court refuses to give content to the words on which a defendant‘s life depends, the subsequent sentence is arbitrary and capricious. I therefore dissent.
No. 89-5327. SCHIRO v. INDIANA. Sup. Ct. Ind. Certiorari denied.
Opinion of JUSTICE STEVENS respecting the denial of the petition for writ of certiorari.
There is a critical difference between a judgment of affirmance and an order denying a petition for a writ of certiorari. The former determines the rights of the parties; the latter expresses no opinion on the merits of the case.1 Partly for that reason, and
This is a capital case. It is one of 63 such cases that were considered at our conference during the week of September 25, 1989. Despite the contrary views that were once expressed,3 it is neither feasible nor wise for this Court to review the merits of every capital case in which the petitioner asks us to review the decision of a State‘s highest court. In many of these cases review of the federal constitutional issues is more effectively administered in federal habeas corpus proceedings.4 The burdens associated with the delay in the date of execution are more than offset by the benefit of complete and adequate review of the decision to impose a death sentence.
In this case, despite the fact that petitioner was convicted of felony murder and sentenced to death in 1981, the Federal District Court has not yet had an opportunity to review his federal constitutional claims.5 The Indiana Supreme Court has, however, considered the validity of the death sentence on four different occasions. First, while the case was pending on direct review, the court unanimously granted the State‘s petition to remand the case to the trial judge to enable him to make the findings of fact that the Indiana statute requires to support a death sentence. Sec-
Petitioner claims that the imposition of a death sentence on the basis of the trial judge‘s finding that he intended to kill his victim, made after the jury had rejected the charge of intentional murder and had unanimously refused to recommend death, violates the Double Jeopardy Clause. It is undisputed that the trial judge‘s
It cannot be disputed that petitioner was placed in jeopardy within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment to the Federal Constitution when the trial on Count I commenced. See Crist v. Bretz, 437 U. S. 28 (1978). The fact that Indiana may not consider the jury‘s silence an “acquittal” as a matter of state law surely does not determine the constitutional question whether he could again be placed in jeopardy on the same charge. Cf. Price v. Georgia, 398 U. S. 323 (1970). Nor does it determine whether the action by the jury—especially when illuminated by its unanimous decision at the penalty hearing—should be given preclusive effect either under the principles of double jeopardy in capital cases enunciated in Bullington v. Missouri, 451 U. S. 430 (1981), or under more general
The long delay that has occurred in this case is a matter of public concern and a matter that is relevant to any consideration of the efficacy of capital punishment. The State‘s dubious procedural scheme that allows a judge to override a jury‘s appraisal of the seriousness of a capital defendant‘s crime has resulted in eight years of litigation. Those years of litigation, and the costs that they have imposed on lawyers, judges, and court administrators, have not furthered any societal interest in incapacitation: since petitioner has been incarcerated continuously from the date of his trial, he has presented no greater threat to the community than if he had been executed promptly after the trial was completed. Nor, since juries presumably represent a fair cross section of the community, has the cost served any compelling interest in satisfying an outraged community‘s desire for revenge or retribution. The delay, however, is manifestly not relevant to, and should have no impact on, petitioner‘s entitlement to consideration of his substantial federal claims by the federal courts.
JUSTICE BRENNAN and JUSTICE MARSHALL, dissenting.
Adhering to our views 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, 227, 231 (1976), we would grant certiorari and vacate the death sentence in this case.