In the case of Green v. Georgia, 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a lower court had violated the rights of defendant Alvin Bernard Ford by excluding relevant mitigating evidence during his sentencing hearing for murder. The excluded testimony was from an accomplice who stated he committed most violent acts and Green only followed orders under duress. This information could have influenced jury's decision on whether to impose death penalty or not but it was deemed hearsay by trial judge and thus inadmissible at sentencing phase despite being admitted at guilt stage due to its reliability. The Supreme Court held this exclusion as arbitrary denial of due process because such crucial mitigating evidence should be considered in capital cases where life is at stake even if it doesn't meet all usual evidentiary standards.

The dissenting opinion in the case of Green v. Georgia is not available as it was a per curiam decision, meaning it was delivered by the court (or at least, a majority of the court) acting collectively and anonymously. The Supreme Court reversed the death sentence for Mr. Green because evidence that could have swayed jurors to vote against capital punishment had been excluded from his sentencing trial. This violated due process under the Fourteenth Amendment since this information was highly relevant to both his character and record, which are constitutionally required considerations when determining whether or not to impose a death sentence.