''Witherspoon v. Illinois'', 391 U.S. 510 (1968), was a
U.S. 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 ...
case where the court ruled that a state
statute providing the state unlimited challenge for cause of
juror
A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment.
Juries developed in England dur ...
s who might have any objection to the
death penalty gave too much bias in favor of the prosecution.
The Court said,
The decision in this case would cause the
Supreme Court of California to order a retrial on the penalty phase in the 1972 case of ''
California v. Anderson'', and when the case was heard for the third time, would find the imposition of the death penalty was unconstitutional on the grounds of the penalty being cruel or unusual punishment, in violation of the
State Constitution. The decision would become national in scale when the U.S. Supreme Court also in 1972 ruled in ''
Furman v. Georgia
''Furman v. Georgia'', 408 U.S. 238 (1972), was a landmark criminal case in which the United States Supreme Court invalidated all then existing legal constructions for the death penalty in the United States. It was 5–4 decision, with each memb ...
'' that all death penalty cases were in violation of the 8th Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Death
Witherspoon died at his home in
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
on Sunday March 4, 1990 after a battle with cancer.
See also
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List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 391
This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 391 of the ''United States Reports
The ''United States Reports'' () are the official record ( law reports) of the Supreme Court of the United States. They include rulings, ...
References
External links
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United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Warren Court
Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause and death penalty case law
United States Sixth Amendment jury case law
Capital punishment in Illinois
1968 in United States case law
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