risk of death to victim only not sufficient though murder committed in public place
How later courts described this case
- risk of death to victim only not sufficient though murder committed in public place
- imposition of death sentence not affected by the consideration of improper aggravating circumstances where at least two valid aggravating circumstances remain to be weighed against one "tenuous" mitigating circumstance
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Justice Brennan and Justice Marshall,
dissenting.
Adhering to our views that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153, 227, 231 (1976), we would grant certiorari and vacate the death sentence in this case.