Wainwright v. Greenfield

Wainwright v. Greenfield
Argued November 13, 1985
Decided January 14, 1986
Full case nameLouie L. Wainwright, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections v. Greenfield
Citations474 U.S. 284 (more)
106 S. Ct. 634; 88 L. Ed. 2d 623; 1986 U.S. LEXIS 41
Holding
The prosecutor's use of respondent's postarrest, post-Miranda warnings silence as evidence of sanity violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices
William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White
Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun
Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist
John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
MajorityStevens, joined by Brennan, White, Marshall, Blackmun, Powell, O'Connor
ConcurrenceRehnquist, joined by Burger
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Wainwright v. Greenfield, 474 U.S. 284 (1986), is a case in which the United States Supreme Court reversed the lower court's finding and overturned the petitioner's conviction, on the grounds that it was fundamentally unfair for the prosecutor to comment during the court proceedings on the petitioner's silence invoked as a result of a Miranda warning.