Woodson v. North Carolina
- Decided
- July 2, 1976
- Docket
- 75-5491
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 2,907 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- holding that the State’s mandatory death penalty statute violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments — Enmund v. Florida (1982)
- recognizing that the “penalty of death is qualitatively different from a sentence of imprisonment, however long” — Berny Serrano v. State of Florida (2019)
- holding that Eighth Amendment requires “the particularized consideration of relevant aspects of the character and record of each convicted defendant before the imposition upon him of a sentence of death” — Taylor v. State (2008)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
Judgment of the Court, and opinion of Mr. Justice Stewart, Mr. Justice Powell, and Mr. Justice Stevens, announced by Mr. Justice Stewart.
The question in this case is whether the imposition of a death sentence for the crime of first-degree murder under the law of North Carolina violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
I
Cite this
Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280 (1976)Read the full opinion
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