Estelle v. Smith

Estelle v. Smith
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 8, 1980 Decided May 18, 1981
Full case name	Estelle, Corrections Director v. Ernest Benjamin Smith
Citations	451 U.S. 454 (more) 101 S. Ct. 1866; 68 L. Ed. 2d 359; 1981 U.S. LEXIS 95; 49 U.S.L.W. 4490
Case history
Prior	Certiorari to the Federal District Court of Appeals
Holding
"An accused who neither initiates a psychiatric evaluation nor attempts to introduce any psychiatric evidence may not be compelled to respond to a psychiatrist if his statements can be used against him at a capital sentencing proceeding."
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Thurgood Marshall Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell Jr. William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens
Case opinions
Majority	Burger, joined by Brennan, White, Blackmun, Stevens; Marshall (all but part II-C)
Concurrence	Brennan
Concurrence	Marshall
Concurrence	Stewart, joined by Powell
Concurrence	Rehnquist
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amends. V, VI

Estelle v. Smith, 451 U.S. 454 (1981), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that, per Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the state may not force a defendant to submit to a psychiatric examination solely for the purposes of sentencing. Any such examination violates the defendant's Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination as well as the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, and is therefore inadmissible at sentencing.^[1]