California v. Brown
United States Supreme Court
479 U.S. 538 (1987)
At the penalty phase of Brown's (defendant's) capital trial, after he presented character witnesses and personally pleaded for mercy, the jury was instructed not to be swayed by mere sentiment, conjecture, sympathy, passion, prejudice, or public opinion, and it sentenced him to death; the California Supreme Court reversed, reasoning the instruction improperly barred the jury from considering the sympathy generated by Brown's mitigating evidence, and the state sought Supreme Court review.
Whether a capital-sentencing jury instruction directing jurors not to be swayed by mere sympathy violates the Eighth Amendment by improperly limiting the jury's consideration of a defendant's mitigating evidence.