| Proffitt v. Florida
(No. 75-5706)
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| Syllabus
| Opinion
[ Stewart, et.al. ] | Concurrence
[ White ] | Concurrence
[ Blackmun ] |
| HTML version
PDF version | HTML version
PDF version | HTML version
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Proffitt v. Florida
CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF FLORIDA
MR. JUSTICE WHITE, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE and MR. JUSTICE REHNQUIST join, concurring in the judgment.
There is no need to repeat the statement of the facts of this case and of the statutory procedure under which the death penalty was imposed, both of which are described in detail in the opinion of MR. JUSTICE STEWART, MR. JUSTICE POWELL, and MR. JUSTICE STEVENS. I agree with them, see Parts III-B(2)(a) and (b), ante at 428 U.S. 255"]255-258, that, although the statutory aggravating and mitigating circumstances are not susceptible of mechanical application, they are by no means so vague and overbroad as to leave the discretion of the sentencing authority unfettered. Under Florida law, the sentencing judge is required to impose the death penalty on all first-degree murderers as to whom the statutory aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors. There is good reason to anticipate, then, that as to certain categories of murderers, the penalty will not be imposed freakishly or rarely, but will be imposed with regularity, and consequently it cannot be said that the death penalty in [p261] Florida as to those categories has ceased "to be a credible deterrent or measurably to contribute to any other end of punishment in the criminal justice system." 255-258, that, although the statutory aggravating and mitigating circumstances are not susceptible of mechanical application, they are by no means so vague and overbroad as to leave the discretion of the sentencing authority unfettered. Under Florida law, the sentencing judge is required to impose the death penalty on all first-degree murderers as to whom the statutory aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors. There is good reason to anticipate, then, that as to certain categories of murderers, the penalty will not be imposed freakishly or rarely, but will be imposed with regularity, and consequently it cannot be said that the death penalty in [p261] Florida as to those categories has ceased "to be a credible deterrent or measurably to contribute to any other end of punishment in the criminal justice system." Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 311 (1972) (WHITE, J., concurring). Accordingly, the Florida statutory scheme for imposing the death penalty does not run afoul of this Court's holding in Furman v. Georgia.
For the reasons set forth in my opinion concurring in the judgment in Gregg v. Georgia, ante at 224-225, and my dissenting opinion in Roberts v. Louisiana, post at 348-350, this conclusion is not undercut by the possibility that some murderers may escape the death penalty solely through exercise of prosecutorial discretion or executive clemency. For the reasons set forth in my dissenting opinion in Roberts v. Louisiana, post at 350-356, I also reject petitioner's argument that, under the Eighth Amendment, the death penalty may never be imposed under any circumstances.
I concur in the judgment of affirmance.