Bigby v. Dretke
| Bigby v. Dretke | |
|---|---|
| Court | United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit |
| Full case name | James Eugene Bigby v. Doug Dretke |
| Decided | March 8, 2005 |
| Citation | 402 F.3d 551 |
| Court membership | |
| Judges sitting | Patrick Higginbotham, Harold R. DeMoss Jr., Carl E. Stewart |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Stewart, joined by a unanimous court |
| Laws applied | |
| Due Process Clause | |
Bigby v. Dretke 402 F.3d 551 (5th Cir. 2005), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard a case appealed from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (trial court) on the issue of the instructions given to a jury in death penalty sentencing. The decision took into account the recent United States Supreme Court decisions concerning the relevance of mitigating evidence in sentencing, as in Penry v. Lynaugh.