APA Dictionary of Psychology

a case resulting in a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision that increased the prosecution’s ability to exclude jurors from death-qualified juries. According to this decision, excluded jurors need not be completely opposed to the death penalty: Any doubts they have over the morality of the death penalty may justify their exclusion. This decision therefore altered the criteria for acceptance from those earlier established in Witherspoon v. Illinois (see Witherspoon excludables).