Woodson v. North Carolina 1976
| Author | Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw |
| Pages | 265-269 |
Page 265
Petitioners: James Tyrone Woodson and Luby Waxton
Respondent: State of North Carolina
Petitioners' Claim: That North Carolina's automatic death penalty for first degree murder violated the Eighth Amendment.
Chief Lawyer for Petitioners: Anthony G. Amsterdam
Chief Lawyer for Respondent: Sidney S. Eagles, Jr., Special Deputy Attorney General of North Carolina
Justices for the Court: William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., John Paul Stevens, Potter Stewart
Justices Dissenting: Harry A. Blackmun, Warren E. Burger, William H. Rehnquist, Byron R. White
Date of Decision: July 2, 1976
Decision: North Carolina's automatic death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.
Significance: Woodson said death penalty laws must let juries choose between death and imprisonment. To make that decision, juries must consider the defendant's character, his prior criminal record, and the circumstances of the murder he committed.
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Using the death penalty, governments kill people as punishment for crime. In the United States, most states allow the death penalty for first degree murder. Before 1972, most states allowed juries to decide death penalty cases with no guidance. Juries had total control to choose life or death for defendants who committed murder.
Associate Justice Potter Stewart.
The Eighth Amendment prevents the government from using cruel and unusual punishments. In Furman v. Georgia (1972), the U.S. Supreme Court said death penalty laws that give juries total control are cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment. Many states, including North Carolina, changed their laws to take control away from juries. Under the new laws, defendants who were convicted of first degree murder automatically got the death penalty. In Woodson v. North Carolina, the question was whether these new laws were cruel and unusual.
James Tyrone Woodson and three other men in North Carolina had discussed robbing a convenience food store. On June 3, 1974, Woodson had been drinking alcohol in his trailer. At 9:30 p.m., Luby Waxton and Leonard Tucker arrived at Woodson's trailer. Waxton hit Woodson in the face and threatened to kill him if he did not join the robbery.
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Woodson got into the car and the three men...
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