mitigating circumstances
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 487 U.S. 164 - Franklin v. Lynaugh · 1988Most cited · 1,214 citing opinions
facts about the defendant's character or background, or the circumstances of the particular offense, that may call for a penalty less than death.
How often courts cite the case defining “mitigating circumstances”
Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “mitigating circumstances” — 1,214 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.