Ingraham v. Wright

430 U.S. 651 · Decided April 19, 1977 · Supreme Court of the United States

At a glance

Ingraham v. Wright was decided on April 19, 1977 by a vote of 5–4. The Court affirmed the lower court's decision. Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. wrote the opinion of the Court. SCDB classifies its main issue as “Cruel and unusual punishment, non-death penalty” in the Criminal Procedure area.

Read the opinion

• CourtListener (Free Law Project) — opinion text
• Library of Congress — official U.S. Reports scan

Case details

How the Justices voted

Full case caption

Ingraham et al. v. Wright et al.

SCDB identifiers: case 1976-085, docket 1976-085-01.

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Other cases on “Cruel and unusual punishment, non-death penalty”

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Cases on the same legal provision: Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment)

• Gardner v. Florida
  430 U.S. 349Decided March 22, 19778–1John Paul Stevens
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  431 U.S. 633Decided June 6, 19775–4Per curiam
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  428 U.S. 262Decided July 2, 19767–2John Paul Stevens

Same Term, same area (Criminal Procedure)

• United States v. Morrison
  429 U.S. 1Decided October 12, 19769–0Per curiam
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  429 U.S. 5Decided October 12, 19769–0Per curiam
• United States v. Dieter
  429 U.S. 6Decided October 12, 19769–0Per curiam
• United States v. Pomponio
  429 U.S. 10Decided October 12, 19769–0Per curiam
• United States v. Sanford
  429 U.S. 14Decided October 12, 19767–2Per curiam
• Moore v. United States
  429 U.S. 20Decided October 18, 19766–3Per curiam

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Source: Supreme Court Database, 2026 Release 01 (data file dated September 8, 2026). Imported into CaseTrail November 5, 2026. Coverage: decisions from the 1946 through 2025 Terms. Methodology · Report an error