CRM/LAW C165 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Thurgood Marshall
15 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Death and Life Qualification
• death qualification
o process of ensuring that the jury is able to impose the death penalty
• Witherspoon v. Illinois 1968
o common misconception that all those who are opposed to death penalty must be
excluded
o Witherspoon limits state’s power to exclude; cannot exclude prospective jurors
simply because they are against the death penalty – that would be a tribunal
“organized to return a verdict of death”
o can only exclude jurors who would automatically reject death or who would not
be impartial
• Wainwright v. Witt 1984 (Florida)
o relaxed Witherspoon standard
▪ don't have to be an automatic life vote to be excluded
o Witt test
▪ juror may be excluded if views on the death penalty would “prevent or
substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror”
• Lockhart v. McCree 1986
o defense presented studies showing that death-qualified juries were more likely to
convict
o court took issue with studies but assumed for purposes of decision that they were
right
o still, death qualification does not violate constitution
▪ even if conviction prone, jury is not necessarily partial
o Lockhart dissent
▪ by Justice Marshall
▪ notes that those excluded by death qualification are disproportionately
Blacks and women
• Morgan v. Illinois 1992
o life qualification
o juror must be excluded if s/he will automatically vote for death, without regard to
mitigating circumstances
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