Casey A. McWhorter v. Alabama

Petitioner seeks this Court’s review of the Alabama Supreme Court’s denial of Petitioner’s habeas petition, which presents important issues concerning Alabama’s denial of constitutional rights based on age. Alabama deems 18-year-olds to be juveniles and excludes them from jury service, yet it permits them to be sentenced to death. This anomaly in the law led to the unconstitutional result of Petitioner being sentenced to death as a juvenile by a jury that was not made up of his peers. The Court should therefore grant cert on the following questions:

1. Does Alabama’s exclusion of 18-year-olds from jury service, coupled with its permitting them to be tried as adults, deny 18-year-old defendants their right to have a jury drawn by a fair cross-section of the community?

2. Does Alabama deny 18-year-olds equal protection of the law because it bars 18-yearolds from state jury service?

3. Does the capital sentence of a defendant whom the state classifies as a minor violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment?