Board of Ed. of Independent School Dist. No. 92 of Pottawatomie Cty. v. Earls
536 U.S. 822 (2002)
Stevens, O'Connor, Souter
417
Patterson v. Texas
536 U.S. 984 (2002)
death penalty
Breyer
Ginsburg dissented from the Court's denial of a stay of the execution of an individual who was 17 when he committed the capital offense, believing the Court should revisit the issue of whether it was constitutional to impose the death penalty for crimes committed when the offender was a minor. Stevens also filed a dissent. The Court ruled three years later that the Eighth Amendment prohibited such death sentences, in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005).