Lockhart v. McCree 1986

AuthorDaniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw
Pages393-397

Page 393

Petitioner: A.L. Lockhart

Respondent: Ardia V. McCree

Petitioner's Claim: That Arkansas did not violate the constitution in death penalty cases by removing prospective jurors who could not vote for death under any circumstances.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner: John Steven Clark, Attorney General of Arkansas

Chief Lawyer for Respondent: Samuel R. Gross

Justices for the Court: Harry A. Blackmun, Warren E. Burger, Sandra Day O'Connor, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., William H. Rehnquist, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting: William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, John Paul Stevens

Date of Decision: May 5, 1986

Decision: The Supreme Court said Arkansas did not violate the constitution.

Significance: Lockhart allows states to use death-qualified juries during the guilt phase of death penalty cases even though evidence suggests that death-qualified juries are more likely to convict defendants.

Page 394

The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives every American the right to be tried by an impartial jury when accused of a crime. An impartial jury is one that is fair, neutral, and open-minded. A jury cannot be fair unless it is selected from a fair cross-section of the community. Using impartial juries allow defendants to be judged fairly by their peers from the community.

Selecting a jury for a case is a two-stage process. In the first stage, the court creates a large pool of people to serve as jurors. This pool is called a venire. It is supposed to contain a cross-section of the community. In the second stage, the court and lawyers select twelve people from the venire to be the jury for a specific case.

During the second stage, lawyers for both parties get to make jury challenges. A jury challenge allows the parties to exclude specific people from the jury. One kind of jury challenge is called "for cause." Parties use for cause challenges to strike jurors who might not be able to decide a case fairly. For example, if a potential juror is the defendant's brother, the prosecutor can use a for cause challenge to prevent the brother from serving on the jury.

Jurors take an oath promising to apply the law when deciding a case. In states that use the death penalty, that means jurors must be able to impose the death penalty if the defendant deserves it. Often a juror says she opposes the death penalty and could not...

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