Death Sentence Overturned on Query for Jury

The Supreme Court on a 6-3 vote overturned an Illinois man’s death sentence Monday, saying murder defendants in capital cases are entitled to ask potential jurors whether they would impose a death penalty automatically if the defendant is found guilty.

The court ruled that the Illinois defendant may have been denied an impartial jury when barred from asking that question.

The decision marked what is becoming increasingly rare at the nation’s highest court--a significant victory for Death Row inmates and those charged with capital crimes.

And the ruling sparked a strongly worded dissenting opinion from Justice Antonin Scalia, who was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas.

Writing for the court Monday, Justice Byron R. White said that “any juror who states that he or she will automatically vote for the death penalty without regard to the mitigating evidence is announcing an intention not to follow” the law.

“Any juror to whom mitigating factors are . . . irrelevant should be disqualified,” White said.

Scalia’s dissent accused the court of thwarting the will of the public.

“Today, obscured within the fog of confusion that is our annually improvised . . . ‘death is different’ jurisprudence, the court strikes a further blow against the people in its campaign against the death penalty,” Scalia said. “Not only must mercy be allowed, but now only the merciful may be permitted to sit in judgment.”

Derrick Morgan was convicted of the Chicago murder of narcotics dealer David Smith.

At his trial, Morgan had asked the judge to ask all potential jurors this question: “If you found Derrick Morgan guilty, would you automatically vote to impose the death penalty no matter what the facts are?” The judge refused.

In another ruling Monday, the court left intact an Idaho law giving condemned murderers only 42 days to appeal.

The justices, without comment, rejected a pair of appeals challenging the law as unconstitutional.

The court also agreed to consider reinstating the death sentence of an Idaho murderer who has admitted to killing as many as 40 people. An appeals court threw out the sentence, imposed for the 1981 beating death of a fellow prisoner, on grounds that the judge erred in considering aggravating factors in the crime.