Aikens v. California
Supreme Court of the United States
Aikens v. California
Certiorari to the Supreme Court of California
No. 68-5027. Argued: January 17, 1972 --- Decided: June 7, 1972
California Supreme Court decision invalidating death penalty under state constitution has mooted this case, where certiorari was granted to consider whether death penalty comports with Federal Constitution.
70 Cal. 2d 369, 450 P. 2d 258, certiorari dismissed.
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.