Caldwell v. Mississippi

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that the Eighth Amendment bars imposition of the death penalty by a jury that had been led to believe that responsibility for the ultimate decision rested elsewhere
• holding Eighth Amendment prohibits imposition of death sentence by a sentencer that has been misled to believe the responsibility for deciding the appropriateness of the -4- death sentence rests elsewhere
• noting concern that jurors could “delegate” their responsibility to a higher court in review
• violation of Eighth Amendment for jury in capital trial to be led to believe that the responsibility for their sentencing decision rests elsewhere
• “[T]his Court has gone to extraordinary measures to ensure that the prisoner sentenced to be executed is afforded process that will guarantee, as much as is humanly possible, that the sentence was not imposed out of whim, passion, prejudice, or mistake.” (emphasis added

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).