433 U.S. 584, 97 S. Ct. 2861, 53 L. Ed. 2d 982 (1977)
Ehrlich Anthony Coker was serving consecutive life sentences for murder, rape, kidnapping, and aggravated assault when he escaped from the Ware Correctional Institution near Waycross, Georgia, on September 2, 1974.1 Later that night, Coker entered the home of Allen and Elnita Carver through an unlocked kitchen door.2 He tied up Mr. Carver in the bathroom, took a knife from the kitchen along with money and car keys, raped the sixteen-year-old Mrs. Carver, and abducted her in the family car while threatening her husband.3
Coker was soon apprehended by police after the abduction.4 He faced charges of escape, armed robbery, motor vehicle theft, kidnapping, and rape in the Superior Court of Cobb County, Georgia.5 Following a determination that he was competent to stand trial, a jury convicted Coker on all counts after rejecting his plea of insanity.6 At the sentencing hearing, the jury found two aggravating circumstances and imposed the death penalty for the rape conviction.7
The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed Coker's convictions and the death sentence imposed for rape.8 The United States Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to consider whether the death penalty for rape of an adult woman violates the Eighth Amendment.9
Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits imposition of the death penalty for the crime of rape of an adult woman?10
The Eighth Amendment, applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment, prohibits imposition of the death penalty for the crime of rape of an adult woman.11 A punishment is excessive and therefore unconstitutional if it makes no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment or is grossly out of proportion to the severity of the crime.12 Objective evidence of legislative enactments and jury behavior is consulted to determine contemporary standards of decency.13
Yes. The objective evidence strongly supports the conclusion that death is an excessive penalty for the crime of raping an adult woman.14 In this case, Coker had prior convictions for capital felonies but the instant crime being punished is a rape not involving the taking of life.15 Georgia is the sole jurisdiction that authorizes a sentence of death when the rape victim is an adult woman.16 This demonstrates that the current judgment with respect to the death penalty for rape weighs very heavily on the side of rejecting capital punishment as a suitable penalty for raping an adult woman.17
The death penalty, which is unique in its severity and irrevocability, is an excessive penalty for the rapist who, as such, does not take human life.18
The Eighth Amendment prohibits the imposition of the death penalty for the crime of rape of an adult woman.19
Related opinions on this issue
Justice Brennan concurred in the judgment.20 He continued to adhere to his longstanding view that the death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in all circumstances, prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.21 This absolute position, articulated in his dissents in Gregg v. Georgia and Furman v. Georgia, leads him to reject capital punishment regardless of the crime or aggravating factors.22
Brennan's concurrence thus provides an independent and broader ground for setting aside Coker's death sentence for rape, diverging from the majority's proportionality analysis by rejecting the penalty entirely rather than limiting it to rape.23
Justice Marshall concurred in the judgment.24 He maintained his view that the death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments in all circumstances.25 Marshall reaffirmed the reasoning from his dissenting opinion in Gregg v. Georgia, where he set forth at length his position on the basic issue.26
He continued to adhere to those views when concurring in the judgment setting aside the death sentence for rape in this case.27 This provides a categorical bar that extends beyond the specific facts or the majority's narrower proportionality holding.28
Justice Powell concurred in the judgment on the facts of this case.29 He agreed that ordinarily death is disproportionate punishment for the crime of raping an adult woman.30 There was no indication that the offense was committed with excessive brutality or that the victim sustained serious or lasting injury. Powell dissented from the plurality's broader holding that capital punishment is always disproportionate for rape regardless of circumstances.31
He would leave open the possibility that a narrowly defined crime of aggravated rape could be punishable by death in a proper case after further inquiry into objective indicators.32
Joined by Justice Rehnquist
Chief Justice Burger dissented from the judgment.33 He argued that the Court overstepped the bounds of proper constitutional adjudication by substituting its policy judgment for that of the state legislature.34 Burger emphasized that rape is not a minor crime and that the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause does not license members of the Court to engraft their conceptions of proper public policy onto legislative judgments.35
He would affirm the Georgia Supreme Court because the death penalty for a recidivist rapist like Coker was within the State's reserved power.36
Whether the death penalty is a disproportionate and excessive punishment for the rape of an adult woman?37
The death penalty is a disproportionate and excessive punishment for the rape of an adult woman.38 It is unique in its severity and irrevocability and the rapist does not take human life.39 Objective evidence from state legislatures and sentencing juries confirms that death is not an appropriate penalty for rape of an adult woman.40
Yes. Applying the rule to the facts, although Coker committed the rape while armed and with prior convictions, the victim was unharmed beyond the rape itself and the jury did not impose death for the armed robbery.41 The legislative rejection of capital punishment for rape strongly confirms that death is indeed a disproportionate penalty for the crime of raping an adult woman. The Court exercises its own judgment that the penalty is excessive given the severity of the sanction and the nature of the offense.42
The death penalty is a disproportionate and excessive punishment for the rape of an adult woman.