# Beck v. Alabama > Supreme Court of the United States · June 20, 1980 · 447 U.S. 625 URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9428004 ## Case - **Full name:** Beck v. Alabama - **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States - **Decided:** June 20, 1980 - **Citations:** 447 U.S. 625; 100 S. Ct. 2382; 65 L. Ed. 2d 392; 1980 U.S. LEXIS 134 - **Precedential status:** Published - **Opinion:** Concurrence by Brennan - **Judges:** Stevens, Burger, Brennan, Stewart, Blackmun, Powell, Marshall, Rehnquist, White - **Cited by:** 1,780 later opinions in the Frix Law Library ## Citator (automated) - **Yellow flag:** Limited on other grounds by Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957 (1991). - Negative treatments: 1 - Distinguished by: 17 - Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9428004 ## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction) - explaining the importance of lesser included offense instructions and stating that .to "expect a jury to ... find a defendant innocent and thereby set him free when the evidence establishes beyond doubt that he is guilty of some violent crime" is to "require[ ] of our juries c… - recognizing that a death sentence is a '"different kind of punishment from any other which may be imposed in this country . . . in both its severity and its finality"' [quoting Gardner v. Florida, 430 U.S. 349, 357-58 , 97 S. Ct. 1197 , 51 L. Ed. 2d 393 (1977)]; court has duty… - holding that in a capital case due process requires that a jury be given the option of convicting the defendant on a lesser included noncapital offense if the evidence would support conviction on that offense to avoid presenting juries with a “death or nothing” choice between … - finding that "when the evidence unquestionably establishes that the defendant is guilty of a serious, violent offense,” but leaves some doubt regarding an element that would justify a capital conviction, failure to give jury the " ‘third option’ of convicting on a lesser inclu… - holding that a death sentence may not "constitutionally be imposed after a jury verdict of guilt of a capital offense, when the jury was not permitted to consider a verdict of guilt of a lesser included non-capital offense, and when the evidence would have supported such a ver… ## Opinion text Mr. Justice Brennan, concurring. Although I join the Court’s opinion, I continue to believe that the death penalty is, in all circumstances, contrary to the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against imposition of cruel and unusual punishments. Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153, 227 (1976) (Brennan, J., dissenting). --- Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9428004. Public record. Not legal advice.