Posted: June 12th, 2022

Read and brief Morgan v. Illinois, 504 U.S. 719

Case Brief
Read and brief Morgan v. Illinois, 504 U.S. 719 (1992). Summarize the relevant facts. Identify the issue, rule, application, and conclusion. Be prepared to discuss the cases and the application and implications to corrections.

Case Brief
CITATION The name of this case is Derrick Morgan v. Illinois. Derrick Morgan is the petitioner; Illinois is the respondent. The Supreme Court of the United States decided upon the case on June 15, 1992. The citation states that this case can be found in the volume 112 of the Supreme Court Reporter, on page 2222.
FACTS The Defendant, Derrick Morgan was convicted by a jury in the Cook County Circuit court of murder and was sentenced to death. The defendant thereafter lodged a petition for certiorari after affirmation of his direct appeal by the Supreme Court.
ISSUE The case challenged the selection of jurors, highlighting the issue with automatic decision to impose death by some jurors, upon a defendant convicted of a capital offence.
RULE Focus was concentrated on voir dire for a capital offense and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in identifying whether a potential juror would automatically impose a death penalty upon conviction of a petitioner.
DECISION The Court sort to see if a petitioner facing death penalty was liable to challenge the jury for cause regarding their decision to impose death in a capital offense case. The Court also identified that it was paramount to ensure that all members of the jury are impartial and indifferent whilst carrying out capital sentencing using the due process, there was also a need to challenge any juror’s whose decision was to automatically to convict in such a case, also an examination of the prospective juror’s views on capital punishment would be required to check on the qualifications of potential jurors to ensure impartibility. The trial court’s examination was seen to be insufficient in identification of the jurors that would automatically impose death, and also there was identified a need to disqualify jurors that were unshakably in favor of or opposed to the death penalty, despite the evidence presented by the case, as they did not abide to the law.
APPLICATION The Due process clause came into action with the Fifth Amendment highlighting that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law while the Fourteenth Amendment, more importantly, highlighted that no state should deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. The voir dire, done by judges or attorneys, facilitates the proper questioning of prospective jurors to examine their eligibility in serving as jurors in a case by identification of bias or preconceived notions that would hinder impartiality of their decision. The case of Morgan v. Illinois provided a platform for this to happen as the petitioner was not pleased with the outcome of the ruling by the Circuit court.
CONCLUSION The overall conclusion was a rejection of the petition on grounds that it was fundamentally unfair to allow Illinois to make inquiries against the jurors that always vote against the death penalty but preclude the petitioner from excluding the jurors that would automatically vote in favor of the death penalty. This was also concluded upon since if all cases followed this route then one death penalty opponent would have the power to slow down any given ruling. But over the years the matter was resolved to ensure capital offense cases only include jurors that were sensitive to the death penalty, which meant that today; only jurors that portray mercy with regard to capital punishment are allowed to sit in the jury.

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