''Morgan v. Illinois'', 504 U.S. 719 (1992), is a case decided by the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. The case established the right of defendants to

challenge for cause Strike for cause (also referred to as challenge for cause or removal for cause) is a method of eliminating potential members from a jury panel in the United States. During the jury selection process, after ''voir dire'', opposing attorneys may req ...

any juror that would automatically impose the death penalty in all capital cases.

Background

In an elaboration of the '' Witherspoon v. Illinois'' (1968) doctrine, the

Rehnquist William Hubbs Rehnquist ( ; October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney and jurist who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years, first as an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 and then as the 16th chief justice from ...

Court considered challenges to the selection of jurors who would automatically vote to impose the death penalty on a defendant convicted of a capital offense. In a 6–3 decision, Justice White wrote for the majority that a defendant facing the death penalty may challenge for cause a prospective juror who would automatically vote to impose the death penalty in every case. Just as a juror who is unalterably opposed to the imposition of the death penalty must be excluded because he or she cannot conscientiously fulfill the oath to follow the law and the instructions to the jury pursuant thereto, so should one who would automatically vote to impose the death penalty be excluded for the same reason. Such a juror, he emphasized, would lack the qualities of impartiality and indifference required by due process. Furthermore, Justice White noted, jurors who would automatically vote to impose the death penalty would not "in good faith ... consider evidence of aggravating and mitigating circumstances" as may be required by law and included in jury instructions.

References

External links

* {{Sixth Amendment, impartial, state=expanded United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause and death penalty case law United States Sixth Amendment jury case law Capital punishment in Illinois 1992 in United States case law

Background

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