# Beck v. Alabama > Supreme Court of the United States · June 20, 1980 · 447 U.S. 625 URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9428005 ## 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 Marshall - **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/9428005 ## 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 Marshall, concurring in the judgment. I continue to believe that the death penalty is, under all circumstances, cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S. 238, 314-374 (1972) (Marshall, J., concurring); Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153, 231-241 (1976) (Marshall, J., dissenting); Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U. S. 420, 433-442 (1980) (Marshall, J., concurring in judgment). In addition, I agree with the Court that Alabama’s prohibition on giving lesser included offense instructions in capital cases is unconstitutional because it substantially increases the risk of error in the factfinding process. I do not, however, join in the Court’s assumption that the death penalty may ever be imposed without violating the command of the Eighth Amendment that no “cruel and unusual punishments” be imposed. Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586, 621 (1978) (Marshall, J., concurring in judgment); Bell v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 637, 643-644 (1978) (Marshall, J., concurring in judgment). I join in the judgment of the Court. --- Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9428005. Public record. Not legal advice.