A Texas requirement that jurors swear an oath that the mandatory imposition of a death sentence would not interfere with their consideration of factual matters such as guilt or innocence during a trial is unconstitutional.
White, joined by Brennan, Stewart, Blackmun, Powell, Stevens
Concurrence
Burger (in the judgment)
Concurrence
Brennan
Concurrence
Marshall
Dissent
Rehnquist
Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held on an 8–1 vote that, consistent with its prior opinion in Witherspoon v. Illinois, a Texas requirement that jurors swear an oath that the mandatory imposition of a death sentence would not interfere with their consideration of factual matters such as guilt or innocence during a trial was unconstitutional.
The surrounding factual issues (involving defendant Randall Dale Adams) were the subject of a partially autobiographical book of the same name, and were featured in the 1988 movie The Thin Blue Line.
Further reading
Gillers, Stephen (1985). "Proving the Prejudice of Death-Qualified Juries after Adams v. Texas". University of Pittsburgh Law Review. 47 (1): 219–255.