# Darden v. Wainwright > Supreme Court of the United States · September 3, 1986 · 477 U.S. 168 URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9430595 ## Case - **Full name:** Darden v. Wainwright, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections - **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States - **Decided:** September 3, 1986 - **Citations:** 477 U.S. 168; 106 S. Ct. 2464; 91 L. Ed. 2d 144; 1986 U.S. LEXIS 113 - **Precedential status:** Published - **Opinion:** Dissent by Brennan - **Judges:** Blackmun, Brennan, Burger, Powell, Rehnquist, White - **Cited by:** 3,789 later opinions in the Frix Law Library ## Citator (automated) - No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases. - Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9430595 ## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction) - concluding that defendant had failed to carry his burden of establishing prejudice from counsel’s failure to introduce sufficient mitigating evidence; noting that “[a]ny attempt to portray petitioner as a nonviolent man would have opened the door for the State to rebut with ev… - holding that the prosecutors’ improper statements did not warrant a new trial because “the prosecutors’ argument did not manipulate or misstate the evidence, nor did it implicate other specific rights of the accused such as the right to counsel or the right to remain silent” a… - holding that the prosecutors’ comments did not deprive pe titioner of a fair trial since “[t]he prosecutors’ argument did not manipulate or misstate the evidence, nor did it implicate other specific rights of the accused such as the right to counsel or the right to remain sile… - finding no due process violation where the prosecutor’s arguments contained highly inflammatory remarks, e.g., “[defendant] shouldn’t be out of his cell unless he has a leash on him and a prison guard at the other end of that leash” but did not “manipulate or misstate the evid… - holding that a defendant was not denied a fair trial by an "undoubtedly ... improper" summation in which the prosecutor compared the defendant to an animal who should only be let out of his prison cell on a leash and stated that he wished the victim had blown the defendant's f… ## Opinion text Justice Brennan, dissenting. I join my Brother Blackmun’s dissent. Moreover, adhering to my view 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 (1976) (Brennan, J., dissenting), I would vacate the death sentence imposed in this case. --- Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9430595. Public record. Not legal advice.