Citations 492 U.S. 302 (more) | End date 1989 | |
Prior history Writ of habeas corpus challenging death sentence denied by United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas; affirmed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, 832 F.2d 915 (5th Cir. 1987); cert. granted, 487 U.S. 1233 (1988) Subsequent history Subsequent death sentence affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and then the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas; affirmed by the Fifth Circuit, 215 F.3d 504 (5th Cir. 2000); sentence vacated, 532 U.S. 782 (2001) Majority O'Connor, joined by unanimous (Parts I, IV-A); Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens (Parts II-B, III); Rehnquist, White, Scalia, Kennedy (Parts II-A, IV-B) Concur/dissent Brennan, joined by Marshall Similar Atkins v Virginia, Stanford v Kentucky, Ford v Wainwright, Thompson v Oklahoma, Gregg v Georgia | ||
Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302 (1989), sanctioned the death penalty for mentally retarded offenders because the Court determined executing the mentally retarded was not "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Eighth Amendment. However, because Texas law did not allow the jury to give adequate consideration as a mitigating factor to Johnny Paul Penry's intellectual disability at the sentencing phase of his murder trial, the Court remanded the case for further proceedings. Eventually, Penry was retried for capital murder, again sentenced to death, and again the Supreme Court ruled, in Penry v. Johnson, 532 U.S. 782 (2001), that the jury was not able to adequately consider Penry's intellectual disability as a mitigating factor at the sentencing phase of the trial. Ultimately, Penry was spared the death penalty because of the Supreme Court's ruling in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), which, while not directly overruling the holding in "Penry I", did give considerable negative treatment to Penry on the basis that the Eighth Amendment allowed execution of the mentally retarded.
Contents
Background
Johnny Paul Penry was convicted of the October 1979 rape and stabbing of 22-year-old Pamela Moseley Carpenter (sister of Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley). Penry, who had been released from prison three months earlier after serving two years of a five-year sentence for rape, forced his way into Carpenter's home and held a pocket knife to her throat. While struggling, Carpenter managed to grab a pair of scissors and stab Penry, but he was able to disarm her. He then dragged her to the bedroom where he proceeded to rape and stab her in the chest with the scissors, fatally injuring her.
Opinion of the Court
The Court ruled that the execution of the mentally retarded does not violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments.