Robert James Anderson, Appellant v. State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Court affirmed the death sentence, holding that the pre‑trial identification and all subsequent evidence were not the fruit of an illegal arrest, that the trial court was not required to give a parole‑eligibility instruction, that the "Penry" issue and comparative proportionality review are not constitutionally required, and that the Texas death‑penalty scheme is not cruel or unusual. A dissent argued that the lack of a parole instruction violates due process, while a concurrence agreed with most holdings but disagreed on point six.