Tison v. Arizona
| Tison v. Arizona | |
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| Argued November 3, 1986 Decided April 21, 1987 |
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| Full case name | Raymond and Ricky Tison v. State of Arizona |
| Citations | 481 U.S. 137 (more) |
| Prior history | Convictions affirmed by the Supreme Court of Arizona, 633 P.2d 335 (Ariz. 1981), and denial of post-conviction relief affirmed by the Supreme Court of Arizona, 690 P.2d 747 (Ariz. 1984); cert. granted, 475 U.S. 1010 (1986). |
| Holding | |
| The death penalty may be imposed on a felony-murder defendant who was a major participant in the underlying felony and exhibits extreme indifference to human life. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | O'Connor, joined by Rehnquist, White, Powell, Scalia |
| Dissent | Brennan, joined by Marshall; Blackmun, Stevens (parts I, II, III, IV-A) |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. VIII | |
Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137 (1987), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court qualified the rule it set forth in Enmund v. Florida (1982). Just as in Enmund, the Tison Court applied the proportionality principle to conclude that the death penalty was an appropriate punishment for a felony murderer who was a major participant in the underlying felony and exhibited a reckless indifference to human life.
This case stems from an infamous prison break during the summer of 1978. Gary Tison was serving a life sentence at the Arizona State Prison in Florence for killing a prison guard. His three sons plotted to break him and his cellmate, Randy Greenawalt, out of prison. On July 30, 1978, the sons entered the prison for a visit, taking advantage of a policy that allowed an informal picnic setting for weekend family visits, carrying an ice chest packed with revolvers and sawed-off shotguns. One of them aimed a sawed-off shotgun at a lobby guard. Greenawalt helped in the escape by cutting off telephones and alarm systems.
They escaped in Donald Tison's 1969 Lincoln Continental, but the next day, one of the Lincoln's tires blew out on a stretch of road not far from the California border, near Quartzsite. Marine Sgt. John Lyons, 24, of Yuma, traveling with his wife, son, and niece, on his way to visit family in Nebraska, stopped to help. Five days later, his body was found along with those of his wife, Donnelda, 23, his 22-month-old son Christopher, and his fifteen-year-old niece, Theresa Tyson.
While Raymond Tison was showing John Lyons the flat tire, the other Tisons and Greenawalt emerged from the brush. Raymond forced the Lyonses into the Lincoln, and then he and his brother Donald drove the Lincoln down a service road. Meanwhile, the other Tisons transferred their belongings into the Lyonses' car, keeping the Lyonses' money and guns. Gary Tison shot out the radiator on the Lincoln, and forced the Lyonses out. John Lyons began begging Gary Tison for his life; Gary Tison mentioned he was "thinking about" killing the Lyonses. Gary told Raymond and Ricky to go back to the Lyonses' car and get some water. According to Raymond, while they were gone, Gary started shooting the Lyonses; according to Ricky, the shooting began once they returned with the water. The two agreed that they had returned in time to watch the elder Tison and Greenawalt kill the Lyonses.
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