Today in Supreme Court History: July 15

Campbell v. Florida, 400 U.S. 801 (decided July 15, 1970): denies cert in murder case where defendant argued that it was error to exclude jurors who would impose death penalty only if recommendation for mercy was added (this was between Witherspoon v. Illinois, 1968, which struck a statute allowing peremptory excusals of jurors who had general objections to death penalty, and Wainwright v. Witt, 1985, can exclude automatically anti-death penalty jurors but not those who had reservations about it)