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Penry v. Lynaugh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Penry v. Lynaugh | |||||||||||||
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 Supreme Court of the United States |
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| Argued January 11, 1989 Decided June 26, 1989 |
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| Holding | |||||||||||||
| The Eighth Amendment does not forbid executing the mentally retarded; however, the three "special issues" a Texas jury is required to consider before imposing the death penalty did not adequately allow the jury in Penry's sentencing hearing to consider his alleged mental retardation as a mitigating factor. | |||||||||||||
| Court membership | |||||||||||||
| Chief Justice: William Rehnquist Associate Justices: William J. Brennan, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy |
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| Case opinions | |||||||||||||
| Majority by: O'Connor Concurrence/dissent by: Brennan Joined by: Marshall Concurrence/dissent by: Stevens Joined by: Blackmun Concurrence/dissent by: Scalia Joined by: Rehnquist, White, Kennedy |
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| Laws applied | |||||||||||||
| U.S. Const. amend. VIII | |||||||||||||
| Overruled by | |||||||||||||
| Tennard v. Dretke; Atkins v. Virginia | |||||||||||||
Penry v. Lynaugh, , sanctioned the death penalty for mentally retarded offenders because the Court determined executing the mentally retarded was not "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Eighth Amendment. However, because Texas law did not allow the jury to give adequate consideration as a mitigating factor to Penry's mental retardation at the sentencing phase of the trial, the Court remanded the case for further proceedings. Eventually, Penry was retried for capital murder, again sentenced to death, and again the Supreme Court ruled, in Penry v. Johnson, , that the jury was not able to adequately consider Penry's mental retardation as a mitigating factor at the sentencing phase of the trial. Ultimately, Penry was spared the death penalty because of the Supreme Court's ruling in Atkins v. Virginia, , which overruled the holding in Penry that the Eighth Amendment allowed execution of the mentally retarded.
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