McCleskey v. Kemp
E299485
McCleskey v. Kemp is a landmark 1987 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court rejected a constitutional challenge to the death penalty based on statistical evidence of racial disparities in its application.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| McCleskey v. Kemp canonical | 3 |
| McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2797282 — 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: McCleskey v. Kemp Context triple: [Gregg v. Georgia, followedBy, McCleskey v. Kemp]
-
A.
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.
-
B.
Furman v. Georgia
Furman v. Georgia is a landmark 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that temporarily halted capital punishment nationwide by ruling existing death penalty schemes unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
Powell v. Alabama
Powell v. Alabama is a landmark 1932 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held in capital cases the Due Process Clause requires defendants be given access to effective legal counsel, especially when they are young, illiterate, or otherwise disadvantaged.
- 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: McCleskey v. Kemp Target entity description: McCleskey v. Kemp is a landmark 1987 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court rejected a constitutional challenge to the death penalty based on statistical evidence of racial disparities in its application.
-
A.
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.
-
B.
Furman v. Georgia
Furman v. Georgia is a landmark 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that temporarily halted capital punishment nationwide by ruling existing death penalty schemes unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
Powell v. Alabama
Powell v. Alabama is a landmark 1932 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held in capital cases the Due Process Clause requires defendants be given access to effective legal counsel, especially when they are young, illiterate, or otherwise disadvantaged.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
criminal law case ⓘ death penalty case ⓘ landmark case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
capital punishment law
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ criminal law ⓘ |
| citation | 481 U.S. 279 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision |
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
ⓘ
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ
linked to:
Fourteenth Amendment
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1987-04-22 ⓘ |
| dissentingJustices |
Harry A. Blackmun
ⓘ
John Paul Stevens ⓘ Thurgood Marshall ⓘ William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 84-6811 ⓘ |
| evidenceConsidered |
Baldus study
ⓘ
statistical analysis of Georgia capital sentencing ⓘ |
| fullName |
McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987)
ⓘ
linked to:
McCleskey v. Kemp
|
| holding |
disparities shown by the Baldus study were insufficient to prove purposeful discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause
ⓘ
racial disparities in the administration of the death penalty did not render Georgia’s capital punishment scheme cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment ⓘ statistical evidence of racial disparities in capital sentencing in Georgia did not establish a constitutional violation in an individual defendant’s case ⓘ |
| impact |
became a leading precedent on Equal Protection challenges to the death penalty
ⓘ
is frequently cited in debates over race and the criminal justice system ⓘ limited the use of statistical evidence to prove racial discrimination in criminal sentencing ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| legalIssue |
Eighth Amendment
ⓘ
Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause ⓘ
linked to:
Equal Protection Clause
constitutionality of the death penalty ⓘ racial discrimination in capital sentencing ⓘ |
| majorityJustices |
Antonin Scalia
ⓘ
Byron R. White ⓘ Lewis F. Powell Jr. ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Lewis F. Powell Jr. ⓘ |
| originatingState | Georgia ⓘ |
| petitioner | Warren McCleskey ⓘ |
| respondent | Ralph Kemp ⓘ |
| resultForPetitioner | death sentence affirmed ⓘ |
| standardApplied |
requirement of proof of purposeful discrimination for Equal Protection claims
ⓘ
requirement that a defendant show discriminatory purpose in his own case ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
capital punishment
ⓘ
criminal procedure ⓘ racial discrimination ⓘ |
| vote | 5–4 ⓘ |
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: McCleskey v. Kemp Description of subject: McCleskey v. Kemp is a landmark 1987 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court rejected a constitutional challenge to the death penalty based on statistical evidence of racial disparities in its application.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: McCleskey v. Kemp