State ex rel. Williams v. Blackburn
| Citation | 396 So.2d 1249 |
| Decision Date | 26 March 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-K-0798,81-K-0798 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana ex rel., Robert Wayne WILLIAMS v. Frank C. BLACKBURN. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Louisiana |
In Re: Robert Wayne Williams, applying for Supervisory and Other Writs, Parish of East Baton Rouge, Number 1-79-356.
Denied.
DIXON, C. J., would grant a stay order and grant the application to consider the argument which minimized the importance of the jury's function because of the appellate function of the Supreme Court.
CALOGERO, J., concurs in denial of stay of execution and denial of writs and assigns reasons.
DENNIS, J., would stay the execution until this Court has heard oral arguments and addressed two very troublesome issues raised by the case for reasons to be assigned later today.
I would stay the execution until this Court has heard oral arguments and fully addressed two very troublesome issues raised by this case.
We have never directly addressed the issue of whether this Court may affirm a death sentence if one or more of the aggravating circumstances found by the jury does not exist. The Supreme Court has indicated that it would be unconstitutional to base a death penalty exclusively upon an invalid statutory aggravating circumstance. Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 100 S.Ct. 1759, 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980).
Recently, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held unconstitutional a death sentence imposed when one of the aggravating circumstances was later held to be unconstitutional even though there were two other aggravating circumstances, either of which by itself would be legally sufficient to permit the jury to impose the death penalty. Stephens v. Zant, 631 F.2d 397 (5th Cir. 1980). This Court presently has under consideration cases in which the issue will be fully addressed. This Court, therefore, should grant a stay of execution at least until it has fully decided the question either by an opinion in this case or in one of the other cases now pending before us.
The other very substantial question which has been raised is whether the prosecuting attorney made an impermissible closing argument to the jury which conveyed the message that the jury's awesome responsibility of deciding whether death is the appropriate punishment is in any way lessened by this Court's limited review of the capital sentence proceeding. See State v. Berry, 391 So.2d 406 (La.1980) (on rehearing).
CALOGERO, Justice, concurring in the denial of the stay of execution.
Inasmuch as the Court majority finds all of relator's contentions in this application to be without merit, granting the stay would serve no purpose other than to cause delay and retard the judicial process. Therefore, I concur in the denial of the stay of execution.
Nonetheless, I believe that one of relator's...
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Sawyer v. Butler
...(portions of text omitted); see id. at 419-21 (Calogero, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing); State ex rel. Williams v. Blackburn, 396 So.2d 1249, 1250 (La.1981) (Dennis, J., dissenting from denial of stay); id. at 1250 (Calogero, J., concurring in denial of the stay); State v. Monroe,......
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