Richard Carter Newman v. Louie L. Wainwright, Director of Florida Division of Corrections

By his habeas corpus petition Newman contends that his death sentence for rape should be set aside because the voir dire examination of the jury panel was not recorded, thus foreclosing to him proof that prospective jurors might have been excused in violation of the precepts of Witherspoon v. Illinois, 1968, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776. Secondly, he urges that the imposition of the death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

The intervening decision in Furman v. Georgia, 1972, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 and its…