Devier v. Kemp

Background

Darrell Gene Devier was convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to death. At his sentencing, the state called a minor, Linda Elrod, who testified she had been raped by Devier about six months before the charged crime. Devier had never been tried for that alleged rape, and the trial judge did not tell the jury any standard of proof it had to find before considering that testimony when deciding whether to impose death.

Reasoning

The Court declined to review the case and left the conviction and sentence in place. Justice Marshall, joined by Justice Brennan, dissented from the denial. He argued the Court should have taken the case to decide whether and when courts may admit evidence of crimes for which a defendant has not been tried or convicted at the sentencing phase of a capital trial. Marshall emphasized that introducing unproved accusations into a death sentencing raises special concerns about reliability under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Real world impact

By denying review, the Court left the lower-court outcome intact and did not resolve the broader legal question. Lower courts will continue to confront whether unadjudicated criminal allegations can be used at sentencing, and conflicting decisions across states may persist. The denial means this particular use of testimony will remain unquestioned by the Court unless revisited in a later case.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Marshall’s dissent stressed the national importance of the question and the existence of conflicting state rulings, arguing for Supreme Court clarification to protect reliability in death sentences.