Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman

Abdul-Kabir was sentenced to death for murder. At sentencing he presented mitigating evidence of his troubled family background and neurological defects. The jury was told to give effect to mitigating evidence only through 'yes-or-no' answers to Texas's two special issues: the deliberateness of the crime and the defendant's future dangerousness. After his conviction, Abdul-Kabir sought federal habeas relief, arguing that the special issues did not let the jury give full consideration and effect to his mitigating evidence, as Penry required.

Whether Texas's 'yes-or-no' special-issue capital sentencing instructions allow jurors to give full consideration and effect to a defendant's mitigating evidence as the Eighth Amendment requires.