Death Verdict Ruled Out if Jury Is Misled : Role of Jurors Must Not Be Minimized, U.S. High Court Says

A death sentence is invalid if the sentencing jury is misled about its role in determining whether the defendant will actually die, the Supreme Court ruled today.

By a 5-3 vote, the court overturned the death sentence of convicted Mississippi murderer Bobby Caldwell.

It was unclear how the decision will affect the more than 1,500 other people on Death Rows nationwide.

At the sentencing phase of Caldwell’s prosecution, his lawyer asked jurors to sympathize with Caldwell and “put him in jail for the rest of his life.” A state prosecutor responded by telling the jurors not to view themselves as determining whether Caldwell would die because their sentence would be reviewed automatically by an appeals court.

‘Awesome Responsibility’

“This court has always premised its capital punishment decisions on the assumption that a capital sentencing jury recognizes the gravity of its task and proceeds with the appropriate awareness of its truly awesome responsibility,” Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote in the court’s main opinion.

“In this case, the state sought to minimize the jury’s sense of responsibility for determining the appropriateness of death,” he said.

The court said Caldwell’s death sentence, reached as it was by a jury misled about its role, violated his constitutional protection against “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Joining Marshall’s opinion fully were Justices William J. Brennan, Harry A. Blackmun and John Paul Stevens. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor concurred in most of Marshall’s opinion, and agreed with the result.

Powell Had No Role

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justices Byron R. White and William H. Rehnquist dissented.

Justice Lewis F. Powell did not participate in the case.

In a 1983 decision, the Supreme Court upheld by a 5-4 vote the constitutionality of a California law requiring that jurors choosing between life or death for convicted murderers be told of the governor’s authority to pardon or commute life sentences.

Marshall said the 1983 ruling did not mean that states are free to give juries in capital cases random information and argument concerning post-sentencing procedures.

Investors May Sue

In other cases, the court:

--Ruled that investors duped by allegedly illegal stock tips generally may sue those who gave them the inside information. In an 8-0 ruling in a California case, the court said that even if investors share in the guilt by using inside tips, they should not be barred from suing corporate insiders and brokers who passed on the information.

--Said in an antitrust ruling in a case from Oregon that business cooperatives do not automatically act illegally when they refuse to deal with one particular business.