Adams v. Texas

Adams v. Texas
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 24, 1980 Decided June 25, 1980
Full case name	Randall Dale Adams v. State of Texas
Citations	448 U.S. 38 (more) 100 S. Ct. 2521; 65 L. Ed. 2d 581
Prior history	Certiorari to the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas
Subsequent history	577 S.W.2d 717, reversed.
Holding
A Texas requirement that jurors swear an oath that the mandatory imposition of a death sentence would not interfere with their consideration of factual matters such as guilt or innocence during a trial is unconstitutional.
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	White, joined by Brennan, Stewart, Blackmun, Powell, Stevens
Concurrence	Burger
Concurrence	Marshall
Dissent	Rehnquist

Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held on an 8–1 vote that, consistent with its prior opinion in Witherspoon v. Illinois, a Texas requirement that jurors swear an oath that the mandatory imposition of a death sentence would not interfere with their consideration of factual matters such as guilt or innocence during a trial was unconstitutional.

The surrounding factual issues (involving defendant Randall Dale Adams) were the subject of a partially autobiographical book of the same name, and were featured in the 1988 movie The Thin Blue Line.

Further reading

• Gillers, Stephen (1985). "Proving the Prejudice of Death-Qualified Juries after Adams v. Texas". University of Pittsburgh Law Review. 47 (1): 219–255.

External links

• Text of Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38 (1980) is available from:  Justia  Library of Congress  Oyez (oral argument audio) 
• Adams v. The Death Penalty