Supreme Court of the United States
Kansas, Petitioner v. Jonathan D. Carr. Kansas, Petitioner v. Reginald Dexter Carr, Jr. Kansas, Petitioner v. Sidney…
January 20, 2016136 S. Ct. 633
Summary
The Court reversed the Kansas Supreme Court's decisions vacating Gleason's and Carrs' death sentences. It held the Eighth Amendment does not require instructions that mitigating circumstances need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, nor does it require severance of joint capital sentencing proceedings. Justice Sotomayor, dissenting, would dismiss the writs as improvidently granted to preserve state experimentation.