South Carolina v. Gathers

Decision Date12 June 1989
Docket NumberNo. 88-305,88-305
Citation104 L.Ed.2d 876,109 S.Ct. 2207,490 U.S. 805
PartiesSOUTH CAROLINA, Petitioner v. Demetrius GATHERS
CourtU.S. Supreme Court
Syllabus

Respondent was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a South Carolina court. The prosecutor's closing argument at the sentencing phase included his reading to the jury at length from a religious tract the victim was carrying and comments on the personal qualities that the prosecutor inferred from the victim's possession of the religious tract and a voter registration card. Finding that the prosecutor's "extensive comments to the jury regarding the victim's character were unnecessary to an understanding of the circumstances of the crime," the South Carolina Supreme Court concluded that those comments "conveyed the suggestion [respondent] deserved a death sentence because the victim was a religious man and a registered voter," and, in reliance on Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496, 107 S.Ct. 2529, 96 L.Ed.2d 440, reversed respondent's death sentence a d remanded for a new sentencing proceeding.

Held: "For purposes of imposing the death penalty . . . [the defendant's] punishment must be tailored to his personal responsibility and moral guilt." Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 801, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 3378, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140. Here, the prosecutor's comments concerned the victim's personal characteristics, and "[a]llowing the jury to rely on [this information] . . . could result in imposing the death sentence because of factors about which the defendant was unaware, and that were irrelevant to the decision to kill." Booth v. Maryland, supra, 482 U.S. at 505, 107 S.Ct. at 2534. The content of the religious tract and the voter registration card could not possibly have been relevant to the "circumstances of the crime." Where there was no evidence that respondent read either the tract or the voter card, the content of the papers the victim was carrying was purely fortuitous and could not provide any information relevant to respondent's moral culpability, notwithstanding that the papers had been admitted in evidence for other purposes. Pp. 810-812.

295 S.C. 476, 369 S.E.2d 140 (1988), affirmed.

BRENNAN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which WHITE, MARSHALL, BLACKMUN, and STEVENS, JJ., joined. WHITE, J., filed a concurring opinion, post, p. 812. O'CONNOR, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and KENNEDY, J., joined, post, p. 812. SCALIA, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 823.

Donald J. Zelenka, Columbia, for petitioner.

Joseph L. Savitz, III, Asst. Appellate Defender, William Isaac Diggs, Columbia, for respondent.

Justice BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.

Respondent Demetrius Gathers was convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the killing of Richard Haynes. The evidence at trial showed that Gathers and three companions encountered Haynes, a stranger to them, at a park bench one evening. When Haynes rebuffed Gathers' attempt to initiate a conversation, Gathers and his friends assaulted Haynes, beating and kicking him severely and smashing a bottle over his head. Before leaving the scene, Gathers beat Haynes with an umbrella, which he then inserted into the victim's anus. Some time later Gathers apparently returned to the scene and stabbed Haynes with a knife.

Richard Haynes was about 31 years old and unemployed. For two years prior to his death he had been experiencing "some mental problems" and had been "in and out of [a] mental hospital" three times. App. 4. Although without formal religious training, Haynes considered himself a preacher and referred to himself as "Reverend Minister"; his mother testified that he would "tal[k] to people all the time about the Lord." Id., at 5-6. He generally carried with him several bags containing articles of religious significance, including two Bibles, rosary beads, plastic statues, olive oil, and religious tracts. Among these items, on the evening of his murder, was a tract entitled "The Game Guy's Prayer." Relying on football and boxing metaphors, it extolled the virtues of the good sport. After Haynes was beaten, his assailants went through his belongings, looking (apparently in vain) for something worth stealing. In rummaging through his personal effects they scattered on the ground the contents of his wallet and bags, including the just-mentioned tract.

Gathers was tried in the Court of General Sessions for Charleston County, South Carolina. During the guilt phase the articles found at the scene of the crime were admitted into evidence without objection.* The jury found Gathers guilty of murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct. All of the testimony and exhibits from the guilt phase were readmitted into evidence at the sentencing phase. The State presented no other evidence at the sentencing phase, but the prosecutor's closing argument included the following remarks, which are the basis for the prese t controversy:

"We know from the proof that Reverend Minister Haynes was a religious person. He had his religious items out there. This defendant strewn [sic ] them across the bike path, thinking nothing of that.

"Among the many cards that Reverend Haynes had among his belongings was this card. It's in evidence. Think about it when you go back there. He had this [sic] religious items, his beads. He had a plastic angel. Of course, he is now with the angels now, but this defendant Demetrius Gathers could care little about the fact that he is a religious person. Cared little of the pain and agony he inflicted upon a person who is trying to enjoy one of our public parks.

"But look at Reverend Minister Haynes' prayer. It's called the Game Guy's Prayer. 'Dear God, help me to be a sport in this little game of life. I don't ask for any easy place in this lineup. Play me anywhere you need me. I only ask you for the stuff to give you one hundred percent of what I have got. If all the hard drives seem to come my way, I thank you for the compliment. Help me to remember that you won't ever let anything come my way that you and I together can't handle. And help me to take the bad break as part of the game. Help me to understand that the game is full of knots and knocks and trouble, and make me thankful for them. Help me to be brave so that the harder they come the better I like it. And, oh God, help me to always play on the square. No matter what the other players do, help me to come clean. Help me to study the book so that I'll know the rules, to study and think a lot about the greatest player that ever lived and other players that are portrayed in the book. If they ever found out the best part of the game was helping other guys who are out of luck, help me to find it out, too. Help me to be regular, and also an inspiration with the other players. Finally, oh God, if fate seems to uppercut me with both hands, and I am laid on the shelf in sickness or old age or something, help me to take that as part of the game, too. Help me not to whimper or squeal that the game was a frameup or that I had a raw deal. When in the falling dusk I get the final bell, I ask for no lying, complimentary tombstones. I'd only like to know that you feel that I have been a good guy, a good game guy, a saint in the game of life.'

"Reverend Minister Haynes, we know, was a very small person. He had his mental problems. Unable to keep a regular job. And he wasn't blessed with fame or fortune. And he took things as they came along. He was prepared to deal with tragedies that he came across in his life.

* * * * *

"You will find some other exhibits in this case that tell you more about a just verdict. Again this is not easy. No one takes any pleasure from it, but the proof cries out from the grave in this case. Among the personal effects that this defendant could care little about when he went through it is something that we all treasure. Speaks a lot about Reverend Minister Haynes. Very simple yet very profound. Voting. A voter's registration card.

"Reverend Haynes believed in this community. He took part. And he believed that in Charleston County, in the United States of America, that in this country you could go to a public park and sit on a public benc and not be attacked by the likes of Demetrius Gathers." Id., at 41-43.

Finding that these "extensive comments to the jury regarding the victim's character were unnecessary to an understanding of the circumstances of the crime," the Supreme Court of South Carolina concluded that the prosecutor's remarks "conveyed the suggestion appellant deserved a death sentence because the victim was a religious man and a registered voter." 295 S.C. 476, 484, 369 S.E.2d 140, 144 (1988). Relying on our decision in Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496, 107 S.Ct. 2529, 96 L.Ed.2d 440 (1987), the court reversed Gathers' sentence of death and remanded for a new sentencing proceeding. We granted certiorari, 488 U.S. 888, 109 S.Ct. 218, 102 L.Ed.2d 209 (1988), and we now affirm.

Our capital cases have consistently recognized that "[f]or purposes of imposing the death penalty . . . [the defendant's] punishment must be tailored to his personal responsibility and moral guilt." Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 801, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 3378, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982). See also id., at 825, 102 S.Ct., at 3391 (O'CONNOR, J., dissenting) ("[P]roportionality requires a nexus between the punishment imposed and the defendant's blameworthiness"); Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137, 149, 107 S.Ct. 1676, 1683, 95 L.Ed.2d 127 (1987) ("The heart of the retribution rationale is that a criminal sentence must be directly related to the personal culpability of the criminal offender"). Two Terms ago, in Booth v. Maryland, supra, we addressed the question whether use of "victim impact statements" in capital sentencing proceedings violated this principle that a sentence of death must be related to the moral culpability of the...

To continue reading

Request your trial
393 cases
  • Arthur v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
    • 8 Marzo 1996
    ...supra, partially overruling Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 [107 S.Ct. 2529, 96 L.Ed.2d 440] (1987), and South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805 [109 S.Ct. 2207, 104 L.Ed.2d 876] Page (1989). However, the Payne court did not overrule the rule stated in Booth prohibiting consideration of a v......
  • State v. Erazo
    • United States
    • New Jersey Supreme Court
    • 8 Agosto 1991
    ...penalty in an arbitrary and capricious manner." Id. at 502-03, 107 S.Ct. at 2533, 94 L.Ed.2d at 448. In South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805, 109 S.Ct. 2207, 104 L.Ed.2d 876 (1989), the Supreme Court affirmed the Supreme Court of South Carolina's reversal of the defendant's death sentenc......
  • Pruett v. Thompson
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia
    • 19 Agosto 1991
    ...the seminal cases of Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496, 107 S.Ct. 2529, 96 L.Ed.2d 440 (1987) and South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805, 109 S.Ct. 2207, 104 L.Ed.2d 876 (1989), which had held that admission of evidence or prosecutor's statements as to the crime's impact on the victim during......
  • Dickey v. Davis
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California
    • 12 Septiembre 2019
    ...while this case has been on appeal, the United States Supreme Court, partially overruling Booth and South Carolina v. Gathers (1989) 490 U.S. 805, 109 S.Ct. 2207, 104 L.Ed.2d 876, held that "[i]n a capital trial, evidence showing the direct impact of the defendant's acts on the victims' fri......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 firm's commentaries
  • Why We Should Keep Teaching Dodge v. Ford Motor Co.
    • United States
    • LexBlog United States
    • 26 Abril 2022
    ...Its Funds or Property for Humanitarian Purposes, 3 A. L. R. 443 (1919). [11] Stout, supra note 2, at 166. [12] South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805, 824 (1989) (Scalia, J., dissenting). [13] Stout, supra note 2, at 168. [14] Thompson v. Walker, 234 N.W. 144, 147 (Mich. 1931); Wagner Elec......
28 books & journal articles
  • Other Evidence Rules
    • United States
    • James Publishing Practical Law Books Archive Trial Evidence Foundations - 2014 Contents
    • 31 Julio 2014
    ...The United States Supreme Court overruled prior precedent, including Booth v. Maryland , 482 U.S. 496 (1987) and So. Carolina v. Gathers , 490 U.S. 805 (1989), to hold that the Eighth Amendment does not establish a per se ban: • prohibiting a capital sentencing jury from considering “victim......
  • JANUS-FACED JUDGING: HOW THE SUPREME COURT IS RADICALLY WEAKENING STARE DECISIS.
    • United States
    • 1 Octubre 2020
    ...in Constitutional Decisionmaking and Theory, 60 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 68, 113 (1991). (188.) See id. (189.) South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805, 824 (1989) (Scalia, J., (190.) L.A. Powe, Jr., Intragenerational Constitutional Overruling, 89 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 2093, 2112 (2014). (191.) See J......
  • Other Evidence Rules
    • United States
    • James Publishing Practical Law Books Archive Trial Evidence Foundations - 2015 Contents
    • 31 Julio 2015
    ...The United States Supreme Court overruled prior precedent, including Booth v. Maryland , 482 U.S. 496 (1987) and So. Carolina v. Gathers , 490 U.S. 805 (1989), to hold that the Eighth Amendment does not establish a per se ban: • prohibiting a capital sentencing jury from considering “victim......
  • Federal Constitutional Requirements Governing Trial, Sentencing and Direct Review in Capital Cases
    • United States
    • Kansas Bar Association KBA Bar Journal No. 64-10, October 1995
    • Invalid date
    ...115 L.Ed.2d 720 (1991) (overruling Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496, 107 S.Ct. 2529, 96 L.Ed.2d 440 (1987) and South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805, 109 S.Ct. 2207, 104 L.Ed.2d 876 (1989)). See also Giles, Victim Impact Evidence and Sentencing for Premeditated Murder in Kansas, 42 U. Kan.......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT