Mallett v. Missouri

Sup. Ct. Mo. Certiorari denied.

Justice Blackmun dissents. Justice Marshall, with whom Justice Brennan joins, dissenting.

Adhering to my view that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153, 231 (1976) (Marshall J., dissenting), I would grant the petition for certiorari and vacate the death sentence in this case. Even if I did not hold this view, I would grant the petition to consider whether a trial court’s decision to transfer a capital trial of an Afro-American defendant to a…