Woodson v. North Carolina
E299482
Woodson v. North Carolina is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down mandatory death penalty statutes as unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Woodson v. North Carolina canonical | 7 |
| North Carolina mandatory death penalty statute for first-degree murder | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2797274 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Woodson v. North Carolina Context triple: [Gregg v. Georgia, decidedWith, Woodson v. North Carolina]
-
A.
Boynton v. Virginia
Boynton v. Virginia was a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court decision that extended federal prohibitions against racial discrimination in interstate bus terminals, helping lay the legal groundwork for the Freedom Rides.
-
B.
Edwards v. South Carolina
Edwards v. South Carolina is a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the breach-of-the-peace convictions of civil rights demonstrators, affirming their First Amendment rights to peaceful protest and assembly.
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C.
Morgan v. Virginia
Morgan v. Virginia was a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down state laws mandating racial segregation on interstate buses, laying important groundwork for later civil rights actions.
-
D.
Virginia v. Black
Virginia v. Black is a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld a ban on cross burning carried out with intent to intimidate while clarifying the limits of First Amendment protection for hate speech and symbolic expression.
-
E.
Chisholm v. Georgia
Chisholm v. Georgia was a 1793 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a state could be sued in federal court by a citizen of another state, a ruling that led directly to the adoption of the Eleventh Amendment limiting such suits.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Woodson v. North Carolina Target entity description: Woodson v. North Carolina is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down mandatory death penalty statutes as unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
-
A.
Boynton v. Virginia
Boynton v. Virginia was a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court decision that extended federal prohibitions against racial discrimination in interstate bus terminals, helping lay the legal groundwork for the Freedom Rides.
-
B.
Edwards v. South Carolina
Edwards v. South Carolina is a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the breach-of-the-peace convictions of civil rights demonstrators, affirming their First Amendment rights to peaceful protest and assembly.
-
C.
Morgan v. Virginia
Morgan v. Virginia was a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down state laws mandating racial segregation on interstate buses, laying important groundwork for later civil rights actions.
-
D.
Virginia v. Black
Virginia v. Black is a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld a ban on cross burning carried out with intent to intimidate while clarifying the limits of First Amendment protection for hate speech and symbolic expression.
-
E.
Chisholm v. Georgia
Chisholm v. Georgia was a 1793 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a state could be sued in federal court by a citizen of another state, a ruling that led directly to the adoption of the Eleventh Amendment limiting such suits.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
capital punishment case ⓘ constitutional law case ⓘ criminal law case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
capital punishment in the United States
ⓘ
constitutional criminal procedure ⓘ criminal procedure ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 1976-01-19 ⓘ |
| citation | 428 U.S. 280 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Thurgood Marshall
ⓘ
William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision |
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
ⓘ
Fourteenth Amendment ⓘ
surface form:
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
|
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1976-07-02 ⓘ |
| dissentBy |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ Warren E. Burger ⓘ William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 75-5491 ⓘ |
| fullName | Woodson v. North Carolina self-link ⓘ |
| holding |
Mandatory death penalty statutes for first-degree murder are unconstitutional
ⓘ
The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit mandatory imposition of the death penalty ⓘ |
| impact |
Contributed to the development of individualized sentencing requirements in capital cases
ⓘ
Limited states' ability to impose mandatory death sentences ⓘ |
| joinedByInPlurality |
John Paul Stevens
ⓘ
Lewis F. Powell Jr. ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| legalIssue |
Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments
ⓘ
application of the Fourteenth Amendment to state death penalty laws ⓘ constitutionality of mandatory death penalty statutes ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Potter Stewart ⓘ |
| page | 280 ⓘ |
| petitioner | James Tyrone Woodson ⓘ |
| pluralityOpinionBy | Potter Stewart ⓘ |
| principle |
Sentencing in capital cases must allow consideration of the character and record of the individual offender
ⓘ
Sentencing in capital cases must allow consideration of the circumstances of the particular offense ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Furman v. Georgia
ⓘ
Gregg v. Georgia ⓘ Jurek v. Texas ⓘ Proffitt v. Florida ⓘ Roberts v. Louisiana ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| respondent |
North Carolina
ⓘ
surface form:
State of North Carolina
|
| result | North Carolina's mandatory death penalty scheme was invalidated ⓘ |
| stateLawInvolved |
Woodson v. North Carolina
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
North Carolina mandatory death penalty statute for first-degree murder
|
| volume | 428 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1976 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Woodson v. North Carolina Description of subject: Woodson v. North Carolina is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down mandatory death penalty statutes as unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
North Carolina mandatory death penalty statute for first-degree murder