Walker v. Georgia

Background

A man convicted of brutally murdering Lynwood Ray Gresham recruited an accomplice, dressed in black, and attacked Gresham outside his home, stabbing him 12 times and dragging him to die. The attacker was arrested with the victim’s blood on his clothes and the victim’s keys in his pocket. A jury convicted him of multiple crimes, found five aggravating factors, and recommended death. The trial court imposed the death sentence and other prison terms. On appeal the Georgia Supreme Court struck two aggravating factors but left three, found the defendant eligible for death under state law, and affirmed the sentence after a comparative review of similar cases.

Reasoning

The main question here was whether Georgia’s state-level proportionality review of the death sentence raised any constitutional problem. Justice Thomas explained that proportionality review is a state-created safeguard, not a constitutional requirement, and that Georgia’s court applied the review in the way this Court has previously approved. The Georgia court examined 21 comparable death-penalty cases and concluded the sentence was not excessive; it also found the accomplice’s life sentence did not make the death penalty disproportionate because the accomplice was mentally retarded and less culpable. Thomas relied on earlier Supreme Court decisions to say no constitutional defect was shown.

Real world impact

Because the Supreme Court denied review, the Georgia court’s decision stands and the death sentence remains in effect for this defendant. The opinion leaves in place the state court’s method of comparing cases as a protective step. This decision is a denial of review, not a new nationwide ruling changing constitutional law.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Stevens disagreed, accusing the Georgia court of perfunctory review and warning of a special risk of arbitrariness in cases involving a black defendant and a white victim; Justice Thomas rejected that view based on prior rulings.