Randy White, Warden, Petitioner v. Roger L. Wheeler (577 U.S. 73)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 14, 2015 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 577 U.S. 73 · 136 S. Ct. 456
- Decided
- December 14, 2015
- Term
- October Term 2015
- Vote
- 9–0
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
PER CURIAM. A death sentence imposed by a Kentucky trial court and affirmed by the Kentucky Supreme Court has been overturned, on habeas corpus review, by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. During the jury selection process, the state trial court excused a juror after concluding he could not give sufficient assurance of neutrality or impartiality in considering whether the death penalty should be imposed. The Court of Appeals, despite the substantial deference it must accord to state-court rulings in federal habeas proceedings, determined that excusing the juror in the circumstances of this case violated the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. That ruling contravenes controlling precedents from this Court, and it is now necessary to reverse the Court of Appeals by this summary disposition. Warden Randy White is the petitioner here, and the convicted prisoner, Roger Wheeler, is the respondent. In October 1997, police in Louisville, Kentucky, found the bodies of Nigel Malone and Nairobi Warfield in the apartment the couple shared. Malone had been stabbed nine times. Warfield had been strangled to death and a pair of scissors stuck out from her neck. She was pregnant. DNA taken from blood at the crime scene matched respondent's. Respondent was charged with the murders. During voir dire, Juror 638 gave equivocal and inconsistent answers when questioned about whether he…
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