Divided Supreme Court Overturns State Death Row Conviction

Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the Court’s three liberal justices—Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The unusual coalition once again highlighted the increasingly unpredictable nature of Supreme Court alignments, particularly in criminal procedure and jury-selection cases.

Dissenting were Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett, who argued that the lower courts had properly handled the case and that the conviction should have remained intact.