Tison v. Arizona
| Tison v. Arizona | |
|---|---|
| Argued November 3, 1986 Decided April 21, 1987 | |
| Full case name | Raymond and Ricky Tison v. State of Arizona |
| Citations | 481 U.S. 137 (more) 107 S. Ct. 1676; 95 L. Ed. 2d 127; 1987 U.S. LEXIS 1808 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Convictions affirmed by the Supreme Court of Arizona, 633 P.2d 335 (Ariz. 1981), and denial of post-conviction relief affirmed by the Supreme Court of Arizona, 690 P.2d 747 (Ariz. 1984); cert. granted, 475 U.S. 1010 (1986). |
| Holding | |
| The death penalty may be imposed due to the felony murder rule on a murder defendant who did not intend to cause the death, but was a major participant in the underlying felony and exhibits extreme indifference to human life. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | O'Connor, joined by Rehnquist, White, Powell, Scalia |
| Dissent | Brennan, joined by Marshall; Blackmun, Stevens (parts I, II, III, IV-A) |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. VIII | |
Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137 (1987), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court qualified the rule it set forth in Enmund v. Florida (1982). Just as in Enmund, in Tison the Court applied the proportionality principle to conclude that the death penalty was an appropriate punishment for a felony murderer who was a major participant in the underlying felony and exhibited a reckless indifference to human life.