| Kansas v. Carr | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued October 7, 2015 Decided January 20, 2016 | |
| Full case name | Kansas, Petitioner v. Jonathan D. Carr; Kansas, Petitioner v. Reginald Dexter Carr, Jr.; Kansas, Petitioner v. Sidney J. Gleason |
| Docket nos. | 14-449 14-450 14-452 |
| Citations | 577 U.S. 108 (more) 136 S. Ct. 633; 193 L. Ed. 2d 535 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | On Writs of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Kansas |
| Holding | |
| The Eighth Amendment does not require courts to instruct a jury that mitigating circumstances need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Kansas Supreme Court reversed and remanded. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Scalia, joined by Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, Kagan |
| Dissent | Sotomayor |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. VIII | |
Kansas v. Carr, 577 U.S. 108 (2016), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States clarified several procedures for sentencing defendants in capital cases. Specifically, the Court held that judges are not required to affirmatively instruct juries about the burden of proof for establishing mitigating evidence, and that joint trials of capital defendants "are often preferable when the joined defendants’ criminal conduct arises out of a single chain of events".[1] This case included the last majority opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia before his death in February 2016.[2]
- ^ Kansas v. Carr, No. 14-449, 577 U.S. ___, slip op. at 11, 13, 16 (2016).
- ^ Walsh, Mark (February 22, 2016). "A "view" from the Courtroom: The Justices return to a black and gray bench". SCOTUSblog. SCOTUSblog. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved March 27, 2022.