McGautha v. California

McGautha v. California
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 9, 1970 Decided May 3, 1971
Full case name	McGautha v. California
Citations	402 U.S. 183 (more) 91 S. Ct. 1454; 28 L. Ed. 2d 711; 1971 U.S. LEXIS 107
Holding
(1) Untrammeled discretion of the jury the power to pronounce life or death in capital cases is constitutional. (2) Having the issues of guilt and punishment resolved in a single trial was constitutional.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices Hugo Black · William O. Douglas John M. Harlan II · William J. Brennan Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun
Case opinions
Majority	Harlan, joined by Burger, Stewart, White, Blackmun
Concurrence	Black
Dissent	Douglas, joined by Brennan, Marshall
Dissent	Brennan, joined by Douglas, Marshall
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. VIII

McGautha v. California, 402 U.S. 183 (1971), is a criminal case heard by the United States Supreme Court, in which the Court held that the lack of legal standards by which juries imposed the death penalty was not an unconstitutional violation of the due process clause portion of the Eighth Amendment.^[1]: 467 Justice Harlan wrote that writing rules for jury death penalty decisions was beyond current human ability.^[1]: 467 The context was public and philosophical scrutiny of the unequal application of the death penalty, especially in that blacks who killed whites were much more likely to have a death penalty imposed.^[1]: 467 McGautha was superseded one year later by Furman v. Georgia, which held that sentencing discretion must be narrowed "so as to minimize the risk of wholly arbitrary and capricious action."

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• Text of McGautha v. California, 402 U.S. 183 (1971) is available from: Justia  Library of Congress  Oyez (oral argument audio) 

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