Lockett v. Ohio - 438 U.S. 586, 98 S. Ct. 2954 (1978)

Rule:

The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require that the sentencer, in all but the rarest kind of capital case, not be precluded from considering, as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death.

Facts:

Defendant Lockett was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to death in connection with a robbery-murder during which she waited in the getaway car she was driving. The state supreme court affirmed her conviction and sentence. Defendant sought certiorari review, attacking the constitutionality of the Ohio death penalty statute, Ohio Rev Code Ann. § 2929.04(B) (1975), on the ground, inter alia, that it did not give the sentencing judge a full opportunity to consider mitigating circumstances in capital cases as required by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Issue:

Did the Ohio death penalty statute, Ohio Rev Code Ann. § 2929.04(B) (1975) violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, thereby warranting the reversal of the defendant’s death sentence? 

Answer:

Yes.

Conclusion:

The Supreme Court reversed the defendant’s death sentence, holding that the Ohio death penalty statute, Ohio Rev Code Ann. § 2929.04(B) (1975), violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment because it did not permit the sentencer to consider a necessary range of mitigating factors, including the defendant's character, age, record, or the circumstances of the offense. The statute was unconstitutionally narrow where it imposed a mandatory death sentence based on a finding that the victim did not induce the offense, that the defendant did not act under duress or coercion, and that the crime was not the product of the victim's mental deficiency. Under § 2929.04(B), the court could not consider, as constitutionally required, that defendant had not intended to kill the victim and that she played minor role in the crime, unless the circumstances pertained to the three mitigating factors.