Morgan v. Illinois

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Morgan v. Illinois

Argued January 21, 1992
Decided June 15, 1992

Full case name:	Derrick Morgan v. State of Illinois

Citations:	504 U.S. 719; 112 S. Ct. 2222; 119 L. Ed. 2d 492; 1992 U.S. LEXIS 3548; 60 U.S.L.W. 4541; 92 Cal. Daily Op. Service 5037; 92 Daily Journal DAR 7962; 6 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 421

Prior history:	Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Illinois

Holding

A defendant facing the death penalty may challenge for cause a prospective juror who would automatically vote to impose the death penalty in every case

Court membership

Chief Justice: William Rehnquist
Associate Justices: Byron White, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas

Case opinions

Majority by: White
Joined by: Blackmun, Stevens, O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter
Dissent by: Scalia
Joined by: Rehnquist, Thomas

Laws applied

U.S. Const. amend. VI

Morgan v. Illinois, 504 U.S. 719 (1992), is a case decided by the United States Supreme Court.

[edit] Background

In an elaboration of the Witherspoon v. Illinois doctrine, the Rehnquist Court considered challenges to the selection of jurors who would automatically vote to impose the death penalty on a defendant convicted of a capital offense in Morgan v. Illinois in 1992. In a six-to-three decision Justice Byron White, speaking for the majority held that a defendant facing the death penalty may challenge for cause a prospective juror who would automatically vote to impose the death penalty in every case. Just as a juror who is unalterably opposed to the imposition of the death penalty must be excluded because he or she cannot conscientiously fulfill the oath to follow the law and the instructions to the jury pursuant thereto, so should one who would automatically vote to impose the death penalty be excluded for the same reason. Such a juror, he emphasized, would lack the qualities of impartiality and indifference required by due process. Furthermore, White noted, jurors who would automatically vote to impose the death penalty would not "in good faith ... consider evidence of aggravating and mitigating circumstances" as may be required by law and included in jury instructions.