Gary Graham v. James A. Collins, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division (506 U.S. 461)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 25, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 506 U.S. 461 · 113 S. Ct. 892
- Decided
- January 25, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice White
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, we are asked to decide whether the jury that sentenced petitioner, Gary Graham, to death was able to give effect, consistent with the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, to mitigating evidence of Graham’s youth, family background, and positive character traits. Because this case comes to us on collateral review, however, we must first decide whether the relief that petitioner seeks would require announcement of a new rule of constitutional law, in contravention of the principles set forth in Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989). Concluding that Graham’s claim is barred by Teague, we affirm. I On the night of May 13, 1981, Graham accosted Bobby Grant Lambert in the parking lot of a Houston, Texas, grocery store and attempted to grab his wallet. When Lambert resisted, Graham drew a pistol and shot him to death. Five months later, a jury rejected Graham’s defense of mistaken identity and convicted him of capital murder in violation of Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(2) (1989). At the sentencing phase of Graham’s trial, the State offered evidence that Graham’s murder of Lambert commenced a week of violent attacks during which the 17-year-old Graham committed a string of robberies, several assaults, and one rape. Graham did not contest this evidence. Rather, in mitigation, the defense offered testimony from Graham’s…
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