Leon Rutherford King v. James A. Lynaugh, Director, Texas Department of Corrections, Respondent

ALVIN B. RUBIN, Circuit Judge,

with whom WILLIAMS and JOHNSON, Circuit Judges, join dissenting:

That Leon Rutherford King is a savage criminal has been proved beyond reasonable doubt. Yet even he is entitled to due process when society imposes its sentence on him. The jury in a capital case is called upon to make a “highly subjective, ‘unique, individualized judgment regarding the punishment that a particular person deserves.’ ”1 Whether a criminal, however vicious, “deserves the sentence of death” 2 depends on what alternative punishment is available. As former Chief Justice Warren Burger has…