
    February 4, 1988
    No. A-541 (87-6196).
    Gardner v. North Carolina.
   Gen. Ct. Justice, Super. Ct. Div., Forsyth County, N. C. Application for stay of execution of sentence of death, presented to The Chief Justice, and by him referred to the Court, denied.

Justice Blackmun and Justice Stevens would grant the application.

Justice Brennan and Justice Marshall,

dissenting.

Adhering to our views that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153, 227, 231 (1976), we would grant the application for stay of execution and the petition for writ of certiorari and would vacate the death sentence in this case.  