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United States ex rel. Free v. Peters

806 F. Supp. 705 (1992)

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United States ex rel. Free v. Peters

United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
806 F. Supp. 705 (1992)

JC

Facts

James Free (plaintiff) was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Illinois state court. Free filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, seeking to overturn his conviction for numerous reasons. One argument Free made was that his death sentence violated the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution because the jurors who sentenced Free did not understand the role of mitigating factors in sentencing. Free primarily relied on a pair of surveys taken of jurors in Cook County, Illinois, in 1990 and 1992 by a pair of professors. A magistrate judge, reviewing this information, found that the jury was likely confused and recommended granting Free’s petition for habeas corpus on this basis. Free and the government each filed objections to the magistrate judge’s report and recommendations. The government had concerns regarding the representativeness of the survey sample from the two surveys, despite evidence that the surveys were randomly administered to actual jurors. The government also expressed concern that the survey results differed slightly, so the surveys may not have been consistent in the manner of administration. Although the surveys differed, the professors who administered them had calculated 95- and 99-percent confidence intervals based on the percentage of correct or incorrect answers.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Aspen, J.)

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