Lockett v. Ohio
E299484
Eighth Amendment case
United States Supreme Court case
capital punishment case
constitutional law case
criminal law case
Lockett v. Ohio is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly expanded the range of mitigating factors a sentencer must be allowed to consider before imposing the death penalty.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Lockett v. Ohio canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2797280 — 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: Lockett v. Ohio Context triple: [Gregg v. Georgia, followedBy, Lockett v. Ohio]
-
A.
Strickland v. Washington
Strickland v. Washington is a landmark 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the two-pronged test for determining when a criminal defendant’s right to effective assistance of counsel has been violated.
-
B.
Atkins v. Virginia
Atkins v. Virginia is a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held executing individuals with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
-
C.
Terry v. Ohio
Terry v. Ohio is a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the legality of police "stop and frisk" searches based on reasonable suspicion rather than probable cause.
-
D.
Batson v. Kentucky
Batson v. Kentucky is a landmark 1986 U.S. Supreme Court case that held prosecutors may not use peremptory challenges to exclude jurors solely on the basis of race, reshaping jury selection practices nationwide.
-
E.
Glossip v. Gross
Glossip v. Gross is a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the use of a particular lethal injection drug protocol in executions against Eighth Amendment challenges.
- 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: Lockett v. Ohio Target entity description: Lockett v. Ohio is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly expanded the range of mitigating factors a sentencer must be allowed to consider before imposing the death penalty.
-
A.
Strickland v. Washington
Strickland v. Washington is a landmark 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the two-pronged test for determining when a criminal defendant’s right to effective assistance of counsel has been violated.
-
B.
Atkins v. Virginia
Atkins v. Virginia is a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held executing individuals with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
-
C.
Terry v. Ohio
Terry v. Ohio is a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the legality of police "stop and frisk" searches based on reasonable suspicion rather than probable cause.
-
D.
Batson v. Kentucky
Batson v. Kentucky is a landmark 1986 U.S. Supreme Court case that held prosecutors may not use peremptory challenges to exclude jurors solely on the basis of race, reshaping jury selection practices nationwide.
-
E.
Glossip v. Gross
Glossip v. Gross is a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the use of a particular lethal injection drug protocol in executions against Eighth Amendment challenges.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Eighth Amendment case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ capital punishment case ⓘ constitutional law case ⓘ criminal law case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
criminal procedure
ⓘ
death penalty jurisprudence ⓘ |
| arguedDate |
1978-03-28
ⓘ
1978-03-29 ⓘ |
| citation | 438 U.S. 586 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Byron R. White
Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Harry A. Blackmun
Lewis F. Powell Jr. ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Potter Stewart ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Potter Stewart
Thurgood Marshall ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Thurgood Marshall
William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ
surface form:
Justice William J. Brennan Jr.
|
| concurrenceInJudgmentBy |
John Paul Stevens
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice John Paul Stevens
|
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
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 | 1978-07-03 ⓘ |
| dissentBy |
William H. Rehnquist
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice William H. Rehnquist
|
| docketNumber | 76-6997 ⓘ |
| fullName | Lockett v. Ohio self-link ⓘ |
| holding |
Ohio’s death penalty statute was unconstitutional because it narrowly limited the mitigating factors the sentencer could consider.
ⓘ
The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require that the sentencer in a capital case not be precluded from considering any aspect of a defendant’s character or record and any circumstances of the offense as mitigating factors. ⓘ |
| impact | significantly expanded the range of mitigating factors that must be admissible in capital sentencing ⓘ |
| joinedPlurality |
Harry A. Blackmun
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Harry A. Blackmun
Lewis F. Powell Jr. ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Potter Stewart ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Potter Stewart
|
| jurisdiction | Ohio ⓘ |
| legalIssue | scope of mitigating evidence in capital sentencing ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
Warren E. Burger
ⓘ
surface form:
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger
|
| page | 586 ⓘ |
| petitioner | Sandra Lockett ⓘ |
| pluralityOpinionBy |
Warren E. Burger
ⓘ
surface form:
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger
|
| precedentFor | requirement that capital sentencers may consider any relevant mitigating evidence ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Eddings v. Oklahoma
ⓘ
Furman v. Georgia ⓘ Gregg v. Georgia ⓘ Woodson v. North Carolina ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| respondent |
Ohio
ⓘ
surface form:
State of Ohio
|
| result | death sentence vacated ⓘ |
| stateLawAtIssue | Ohio capital punishment statute ⓘ |
| subsequentHistory | remanded for further proceedings consistent with the opinion ⓘ |
| volume | 438 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1978 ⓘ |
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: Lockett v. Ohio Description of subject: Lockett v. Ohio is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly expanded the range of mitigating factors a sentencer must be allowed to consider before imposing the death penalty.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.