Supreme Court of the United States, 1972

Aikens v. California

Supreme Court of the United States · Decided June 7, 1972 · Per Curiam

406 U.S. 813; 92 S. Ct. 1931; 32 L. Ed. 2d 511; 1972 U.S. LEXIS 52 (United States Reports)

Counsel

Anthony G. Amsterdam argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the brief were Jerome B. Falk, Jr., Paul N. Halvonik, Michael Meltsner, Jack Greenberg, James M. Nabrit III, Charles Stephen Ralston, Jack Himmelstein, and Elizabeth B. Dubois., Ronald M. George, Deputy Attorney General of California, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Evelle J. Younger, Attorney General, and William E. James, Assistant Attorney General., Briefs of amici curiae were filed by John E. Havelock, Attorney General, for the State of Alaska; by Willard J. Lassers and Elmer Gertz for the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States et al.; by Leo Pfeffer for the Synagogue Council of America and its Constituents et al.; by Paul Raymond Stone for the West Virginia Council of Churches et al.; by Donald M. Wessling for the Committee of Psychiatrists for Evaluation of the Death Penalty; by Gerald H. Gottlieb, Melvin L. Wulf, and Sanford Jay Rosen for the American Civil Liberties Union; by Chauncey Eskridge, Mario G. Obledo, Leroy D. Clark, Nathaniel R. Jones, and Vernon Jordan for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People et al.; by Marshall J. Hartman for the National Legal Aid and Defender Association; by Michael V. DiSalle for Edmund G. Brown et al.; by Hilbert P. Zarky for James V. Bennett et al.; and by Luke McKissack, pro se.

Cases that cite this one

8 later published cases cite this decision.

Furman v. Georgia (Supreme Court of the United States 1972)
Super Tire Engineering Company v. Lloyd W. McCorkle Commissioner of the Department of Institutions and Agencies of the State of New Jersey (3d Cir. 1972)
Calpine Corp. v. PA DEP & PA EQB (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2023)
Chambers v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees International Union, AFL-CIO (District Court, D. Oregon 2020)
Nesglo, Inc. v. Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A. (District Court, D. Puerto Rico 1983)
United States v. Matthews (United States Court of Military Appeals 1983)
Graham v. Collins (Supreme Court of the United States 1993)
Massachusetts v. Oakes (Supreme Court of the United States 1989)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion

Per Curiam.

Petitioner in this case, which has been orally argued and is now sub judice, has filed a Suggestion of Mootness and Motion for Remand based on the intervening decision of the California Supreme Court in People v. Anderson, 6 Cal. 3d 628, 493 P. 2d 880 (1972). That decision declared capital punishment in California unconstitutional under Art. 1, § 6, of the state constitution. The decision rested on an adequate state ground and the State’s petition for writ of certiorari was denied. 406 U. S. 958. The California Supreme Court declared in the Anderson case that its decision was fully retroactive and stated that any prisoner currently under sentence of death could petition a superior court to modify its judgment. Petitioner thus no longer faces a realistic threat of execution, and the issue on which certiorari was granted — the constitutionality of the death penalty under the Federal Constitution — is now moot in his case. Accordingly the writ of certiorari is dismissed.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.