The Death Penalty: Furman V. Georgia

The Death Penalty first used in America in 1608 has been a controversial issue for much time (Part). Two landmark cases of the Death Penalty were Furman v. Georgia in 1972 and Gregg v. Georgia in 1076.

Furman v. Georgia Furman v. Georgia in 1972, was a court case which decided the constitutionality of the death penalty. The case was that of William Henry Furman, an African American from Georgia. Furman had broken in a home to commit theft, while in the house, the home-owner surprised him. As Furman was running away he “dropped his gun, which discharged and killed the home owner.” After he was arrested, he was brought to court and the jury had the choice of life imprisonment or death, and it chose death (Clenaghan). However, in the same case

They said "…[T]he American people no longer felt that the death penalty was suited to human dignity." They also said that poor people and colored people received the death penalty more consistently than white people. So, their main point was that of the violation of the 14th amendment which guaranteed equal protection of the laws (Clenaghan).

Attorneys of Georgia argued that the Death Penalty was permitted because Georgia had due process of law to punish Furman according to the 5th and 14th amendment. They also said the Death Penalty wasn’t “cruel and unusual”, as stated in the 8th amendment, because they had due process of law (Clenaghan).

The Court ruled in the per curiam opinion that, “The Court holds that the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty in these cases constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments”

Georgia there was no majority opinion, however there was a per curiam opinion that outlined the decision that the court made. It stated that, “The judgment in each case is therefore reversed insofar as it leaves undisturbed the death sentence imposed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings” (Furman). Justice Stewart’s concurring opinion proved to be the most influential (Coenen). For Justice Stewart the problem he saw wasn’t the punishment itself but actually the trial juries and how a single jury can end a person’s life. His argument stated that the juries were completely random when deciding to institute capital punishment, in cases such as murder, kidnapping, rape, and armed robbery. He also said that the juries would more likely choose capital punishment when it was a colored or poor person convicted of a crime. This was in clear violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, so he decided to reverse the death sentence for all three cases