75 Wash. 2d 421 - State v. Aiken’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 1 district · 14 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Just as veniremen cannot be excluded for cause on the ground that they hold such views, so too they cannot be excluded for cause simply because they indicate that there are some kinds of cases in which they would refuse to recommend capital punishment. And a prospective juror cannot be expected to say in advance of trial whether he would in fact vote for the extreme penalty in the case before him. The most that can be demanded of a venireman in this regard is that he be willing to consider all of the penalties provided by state law, and that he not be irrevocably committed, before the trial has begun, to vote against the penalty of death regardless of the facts and circumstances that might emerge in the course of the proceedings. If the voir dire testimony in a given case indicates that veniremen were excluded on any broader basis than this, the death sentence cannot be carried out even if applicable statutory or case law in the relevant jurisdiction would appear to support only a narrower ground of exclusion. . . . We repeat, however, that nothing we say today bears upon the power of a State to execute a defendant sentenced to death by a jury from which the only veniremen who were in fact excluded for cause were those who made unmistakably clear (1) that they would automatically vote against the imposition of capital punishment without regard to any evidence that might be developed at the trial of the case before them, or (2) that their attitude toward the death penalty woul”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 76 Wash. 2d 650 - State v. Adams · 78 Wash. 2d 389 - Hawkins v. Rhay

2. “Each had heard the voir dire questions concerning capital punishment repeated with almost monotonous regularity and each had the opportunity of noting the responses and rulings with respect thereto. In this context it would be wholly unrealistic to assume that each did not understand what part their convictions with respect to the death penalty would play in their possible selection as jurors, and it would be equally unreasonable to presume that the learned trial judge misinterpreted their responses or the depth of their convictions when they were before him and he was questioning them. . . . Though it may be conceded that the voir dire testimony of these . . . veniremen could, from the standpoint of appellate review, have been more complete and definitive, we are convinced from the voir dire testimony of the panel as a whole that the trial judge did not violate the spirit of Witherspoon [Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510 , 20 L. Ed. 2d 776 , 88 S. Ct. 1770 (1968)] in excusing them on the basis of their statements and his evaluation of them.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 76 Wash. 2d 650 - State v. Adams

3. “Specifically, we hold that a sentence of death cannot be carried out if the jury that imposed or recommended it was chosen by excluding veniremen for cause simply because they voiced general objections to the death penalty or expressed conscientious or religious scruples against its infliction.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 78 Wash. 2d 389 - Hawkins v. Rhay