In Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510 (1968), the court looked at state laws that authorized prosecutors to exclude from the jury anyone who was opposed to capital punishment. In 1960 William C. Witherspoon was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Witherspoon challenged the constitutionality of his conviction based on an Illinois statute that allowed unlimited prospective jurors to be dismissed for cause, if they stated that they were opposed to capital punishment. Witherspoon argued that he was unfairly deprived of his right to a fair trial and the United States Supreme Court agreed. The court held that in order to dismiss a prospective juror for cause, the prosecutor had to establish that the person's beliefs would deter him from reaching an impartial verdict.
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