In this case, petitioner Robert Alton Harris "appeals from the denial of his petitions for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the constitutionality of his convictions for two counts of murder and the sentence of death under California's 1977 capital sentencing law." The case was brought against San Quentin warden A. Pulley. In this Supreme Court case, Harris challenged the Eight Amendment of the U.S. Consitution, adopted in 1791, which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment," as well as excessive bail or fines. Capital punishment was then (and is still, though a moratorium was issued in March 2019) legal in California, and exceptions to the Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause are sometimes made in murder cases.

Harris sought specifically to have his punishment reviewed and proportionally compared with the sentences of others who had committed similar crimes. The court decided that the Eight Amendment does not require this review "as an invariable rule in every case" by the state appellate court. Harris, despite many appeals and a long fight with much support from law students and the ACLU, was eventually executed by the State of California in 1992. He was the first person to be executed in California since 1967.