Caldwell v. Mississippi

Caldwell v. Mississippi
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 25, 1985 Decided June 11, 1985
Full case name	Bobby Caldwell v. Mississippi
Citations	472 U.S. 320 ( more ) 105 S.Ct. 2633, 86 L.Ed.2d 231
Argument	Oral argument
Case history
Prior	Caldwell v. State, 443 So. 2d 806 (Miss. 1983), certiorari granted, 469 U.S. 879 (1984)
Holding
A prosecutor in a capital case must never tell the jury that jurors are not deciding whether the defendant will die.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr.  · Byron White Thurgood Marshall  · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr.  · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens  · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Majority	Marshall (except as to Part IV-A), joined by Brennan, Blackmun, Stevens, O'Connor
Plurality	Marshall (Part IV-A), joined by Brennan, Blackmun, Stevens
Concurrence	O'Connor (in part and in judgment)
Dissent	Rehnquist, joined by Burger, White
Powell took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320 (1985), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that a prosecutor in a capital case must never tell the jury that jurors are not deciding whether the defendant will die. To do so violates the Eighth Amendment. The Court vacated the death sentence of the petitioner, Bobby Caldwell. ^{[1] [2]}

Background

In a bifurcated proceeding conducted pursuant to Mississippi's capital punishment statute, Bobby Caldwell was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The defendant's lawyers, in their closing argument at the sentencing stage, referred to petitioner's youth, family background, and poverty, as well as to general character evidence. They asked the jury to show mercy, emphasizing that the jury should confront the gravity and responsibility of calling for another's death. In response, the prosecutor urged the jury not to view itself as finally determining whether petitioner would die, because a death sentence would be reviewed for correctness by the Mississippi Supreme Court. That court unanimously affirmed the conviction but affirmed the death sentence by an equally divided court. Relying on California v. Ramos , the Mississippi Supreme Court rejected the contention that the prosecutor's comments violated the Eighth Amendment. ^[1]

Opinion of the court

The Supreme Court reversed. The opinion of the Court was authored by Justice Thurgood Marshall, and was joined in full by Justices William J. Brennan Jr., Harry Blackmun, and John Paul Stevens. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, whose vote was necessary for Marshall's opinion to have support from a majority of justices, joined all of his opinion except for Part IV-A. ^[1]

References

1. "Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320 (1985)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2025-09-06.
2. Mello, Michael. "Taking Caldwell v. Mississippi Seriously: The Unconstitutionality of Capital Statutes that Divide Sentencing Responsibility Between Judge and Jury." BCL Rev. 30 (1988): 283.

External links

• Text of Caldwell v. Mississippi is available from: Cornell Findlaw Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)

This article incorporates written opinion of a United States federal court. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the text is in the public domain .