Thompson v. Oklahoma

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Thompson v. Oklahoma

Argued November 9, 1987
Decided June 29, 1988

Full case name:	William Wayne Thompson v. State of Oklahoma

Citations:	487 U.S. 815; 108 S. Ct. 2687; 101 L. Ed. 2d 702; 1988 U.S. LEXIS 3028; 56 U.S.L.W. 4892

Prior history:	Defendant tried as an adult and convicted of murder of his brother in law, who had been abusing his ex-wife(which happened to be Thompson's sister),was found guilty, and was sentenced to death. Appealed to Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, decision affirmed. Appealed to U.S. Supreme Court, granted writ of certiorari.

Holding

The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 16 when their crimes were committed.

Court membership

Chief Justice: William Rehnquist
Associate Justices: William J. Brennan, Jr., Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy

Case opinions

Plurality by: Stevens
Joined by: Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun
Concurrence by: O'Connor
Dissent by: Scalia
Joined by: Rehnquist, White
Kennedy took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Laws applied

U.S. Const. amends. VIII, XIV

Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988)^[1], was the first case since the moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in the United States in which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of a minor on grounds of "cruel and unusual punishment."

William W. Thompson, a 15 year-old at the time of his crime, was tried as an adult for murder, found guilty, and sentenced to death in an Oklahoma trial court. The Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma upheld the decision.

On appeal, the Supreme Court held in a 5-3 decision that Thompson's execution would violate the Eighth Amendment as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court noted the "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society" as a primary concern. Numerous U.S. jurisdictions and all industrialized Western nations had banned the execution of minors under 16 years of age. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the dissent, and Anthony Kennedy took no part in the decision.