Aikens v. California

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Aikens v. California

Argued January 17, 1972
Decided June 7, 1972

Full case name:	Earnest James Aikens, Jr. v. People of the State of California

Citations:	406 U.S. 813; 406 U.S. 813

Prior history:	Crim. No. 10118 Feb. 18, 1969: 70 Cal. 2d 369, 450 P.2d 258; Certiorari dismissed (406 U.S. 813)

Subsequent history:	Death sentence converted to Life in Prison

Holding

Since petitioner no longer faces execution, his appeal is moot.

Court membership

Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices: William O. Douglas, William J. Brennan, Jr., Potter Stewart, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., William Rehnquist

Case opinions

Majority by: per curiam

Aikens v. California, 406 U.S. 813 (1972) was a decision of the United States Supreme Court where a petitioner was appealing his conviction and death sentence, after oral argument had been made on the case, but before the court decided on it, the California Supreme Court in California v. Anderson, 6 Cal. 3d 628 ,(1972), declared the death penalty unconstitutional under the state constitution. This made his appeal unnecessary because the decision in Anderson

“

declared capital punishment in California unconstitutional under Art. 1, 6, of the state constitution... The California Supreme Court declared in the Anderson case that its decision was fully retroactive and stated that any prisoner currently under sentence of death could petition a superior court to modify its judgment. [Aikens] thus no longer faces a realistic threat of execution...

”

The Supreme Court would, later that year, in Furman v. Georgia 408 U.S. 238 (1972) decide that the Death Penalty was under certain circumstances unconstitutional. Aikens was originally one of four cases that were selected along with Furman, but when the Anderson case was decided by the California Supreme Court, Aikens became moot.