LOUIS JONES, PETITIONER v. UNITED STATES, 527 U.S. 373

Summary

Petitioner was sentenced to death for committing a kidnapping resulting in death to the victim. His sentence was imposed under the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, 18 U.S.C.S. § 3591 et seq. The circuit court affirmed petitioner's sentence, and the court granted certiorari. The court affirmed the sentence, declining to exercise its supervisory powers to require that an instruction on the consequences of deadlock be given in every capital case. Petitioner was not entitled under the Eighth Amendment to a jury instruction as to the effect of a jury deadlock. The court found that there was no reasonable likelihood that the jury had been led to believe that the accused would receive a court-imposed sentence less than life imprisonment in the event that the jury could not reach a unanimous sentence recommendation, and even if it was assumed that the district court had erred by allowing the jury to consider non-statutory aggravating factors that were vague, overbroad, and duplicative in ...