Grossman v. Florida
Headline: The Court refuses to review multiple state death-penalty cases, leaving death sentences in place while two Justices dissent and say they would vacate those sentences as always unconstitutional.
Holding: The Court refused to review several state death-penalty cases by denying review, thereby leaving the lower-court death sentences in place while two Justices dissented.
- Leaves multiple state death sentences in place by refusing to review those appeals.
- Two Justices dissented and said they would vacate those death sentences as unconstitutional.
- The Constitutional question about the death penalty was not decided here and remains open.
Summary
Background
Several appeals challenging state-imposed death sentences were presented to the Court through multiple listings from state and lower federal courts. The entry here shows the Supreme Court declined to take these cases for review, so the lower-court rulings supporting the death sentences remain standing for now.
Reasoning
The short opinion text records only that review was denied and does not provide a written majority explanation for that refusal. The core practical question was whether the Court would step in to reconsider these death sentences. Instead, the Court left the lower-court outcomes undisturbed by denying review, so the constitutional issues raised in the underlying cases were not decided by this Court in this action.
Real world impact
As a result of the denial, the existing death sentences identified in the listed cases remain in effect under the lower-court rulings. The denial of review is not a decision on the merits, so the deep constitutional questions about the death penalty raised in these cases were not resolved here and could be raised again in other proceedings or future filings.
Dissents or concurrances
Two Justices, Brennan and Marshall, filed a brief dissent. They said they adhere to the view that the death penalty is always cruel and unusual punishment and stated they would have granted review and vacated the death sentences in these cases.
Opinions in this case:
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