WITHERSPOON V. ILLINOIS

Witherspoon v . Illinois

This case is important in the legal history of the United States because it reversed the earlier decision taken by the lower court which had excluded the jurors from participating in the trial as they had openly expressed their opposition to capital punishment . The Supreme Court decided that a partial jury cannot sentence a convicted person to death This decision has created debate among the legal experts of the USA

In this case , William Witherspoon was charged with the murder of the Policeman when the latter tried to arrest

Witherspoon . Witherspoon was brought before the Circuit Court , Cook Country , Illinois and he was convicted of the murder of the policeman and he was sent to death . While taking this decision the court excluded those jurors who expressed their opinion that they conscientiously opposed the capital punishment . It was thought that those who opposed capital punishment may not be in a position to provide impartial judgment . Hence , the jurors who opposed capital punishment were excluded and only those jurors who favored capital punishment were included in this trial . However , Mr . Justice Stewart of the United States Supreme Court decided that it is not possible to carry out death sentences in this case because the veniremen were excluded simply because due to religious and other factors they did not agree with the capital punishment and such a tribunal so selected by excluding some jurors cannot sentence a person to death . This is an important decision taken by the Supreme Court because it clarified its position regarding the question whether it is proper to exclude the jurors who opposed capital punishment . The state of Illinois quoted the earlier judgments such as People v . Carpenter wherein the state provision that those jurors who opposed capital punishment should be excluded was applied . The Circuit Court also mentioned the earlier cases such as Commonwealth v . Webster , Atkins v . State , and Williams v . State However , the Supreme Court did not agree with the decision of the lower court to exclude the jurors who opposed death punishment (Mason , n .d pp . 513-514

This decision of the Illinois Supreme Court was dissented by the Judges such as Mr . Justice Black , Mr . Justice Harlan and Mr . Justice White who argued that the Court had committed the mistake by reversing the decision of the Circuit Court because it has failed to provide impartial jury in this case because those jurors who believed that they opposed death punishment would not be in a position to give impartial judgment However , the Supreme Court decided that this clause of exclusion of jurors did not guarantee the due process of law for the convict and that the `hanging judiciary ' cannot sentence a person to death . The dissenting judges argued that the exclusion of the judges was necessary in to provide the impartial judgment . The dissenting judges quoted from the earlier cases to justify their argument (Cornell Law School This shows that this Supreme Court decision resulted in a controversy among legal...