People v. LaValle
People v. LaValle, 3 N.Y.3d 88 (2004), was a landmark decision by the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the U.S. state of New York, in which the court ruled that the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional because of the statute's direction on how the jury was to be instructed in case of deadlock. New York has since been without the death penalty, as the law has not been amended.
Marvin Gabrion
"United States v. Gabrion" is considered a landmark case for its use of the death penalty in a non-death penalty state. Capital punishment has been abolished in Michigan since 1846. Michigan was the first English-speaking jurisdiction to eliminate the death penalty. Federal jurisdiction allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case. Rachel's body was found on federal land in Manistee National Forest, allowing prosecutors to try Gabrion in federal court and seek the death penalty on federal charges, a sentence that is not provided for under Michigan law. Gabrion was the first person in the United States to receive the death penalty for a crime committed in a non-death penalty state since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988 as well as the first person to be sentenced to death in the state of Michigan since 1937.