Capital Punishment Case, Research Paper Example

A court trial which required the United States Supreme Court to make a consistency on the death penalty was the case of William Henry  Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972). According to the case, the victim was being robbed by Furman (“Wikipedia.org”). Furman stated that while he was trying to escape from the victim’s house, he accidentally tripped over his weapon and it fired, killing the victim. This came in contradictory to his previous police statement in which he said he turned around and blindly fired a shot while escaping the scene.

Because Furman’s shooting happened during the commission of a felony, he would have been guilty of a murder which was eligible for the death penalty which was under the law, which was extant at that time. Furman was found guilty after being tried for murder. This was largely due to his own statement. Furman was sentenced to death; however his punishment was never carried out. The case ended in a 5-4 decision (“Wikipedia.org”). However, the Court’s one-page per curiam opinion stated that the imposition of the death penalty were a cruel and unusual punishment which violated the Constitution.

Furman had a glimpse of winning over his case, despite not having the full consent of his panel of judges. The United States Supreme Court decided that the death penalty to be overturned in Furman’s case. Because the majority of the justices could not agree on what to do regarding the death penalty, each of the nine justices decided to write separately; this had to be done in a way that none of the five justices which consisted of the majority of the votes would join opinions with the other.

Justice Potter Stewart wrote that:

“These death sentences are cruel and unusual  in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual. For, of all the people convicted of rapes and murders in 1967 and 1968, many just as reprehensible as these, the petitioners are among a capriciously selected random handful upon whom the sentence of death has in fact been imposed. My concurring Brothers have demonstrated that, if any basis can be discerned for the selection of these few to be sentenced to death, it is the constitutionally impermissible basis of race. See McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U.S. 184 (1964) But racial discrimination has not been proved, and I put it to one side. I simply conclude that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments  cannot tolerate the infliction of a sentence of death under legal systems that permit this unique penalty to be so wantonly and so freakishly imposed.” (qtd. “Wikipedia.org”)

Furnam’s case lead to a del facto moratorium on the death penalty throughout the United States, this ended for the case of Gregg v. Georgia in the Supreme Court during 1976 (“Wikipedia.org”).

Gregg v. Georgia, which was a case in the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in the year 1976 had reaffirmed the United States (Coenin). Gregg was charged for armed robbery and murder. Evidence showed that he robbed and killed two men. During Gregg’s trial he was found guilty on two counts – robbery and murder. At this penalty stage, it was recommended by the judge that the jury could recommend two things: the death penalty or two life sentences; it was free to consider either mitigating or aggravating circumstances in Gregg’s sentencing; this was in accordance to what the parties would present (“Lect Law Library”). Imposing the death sentence would not be authorized unless it covered three circumstances:

1. The murder was committed during the time the offender was engaged in commission of other capital felonies; in Gregg’s case this was armed robbery
2. That the murder he had committed was the purpose of this robbery
3. That the murder was “outrageously and wantonly vile, horrible and inhuman” in that it “involved the depravity of the mind of the defendant” (Coenin)

Because the jury found that the first and second circumstances were evident, they returned to a sentence of death (“Wikipedia.org”). This was after reviewing a trial transcript and record which compared the evidence and sentence in a similar case. This was for the death sentence due to a robbery and a murder.

With Gregg’s case, the Court found that capital sentencing met the criteria. This started the beginning of the United Stats’ modern legal conversation about death penalty. This was a major development, which was followed by developments including:

• forbidding the death penalty for rape
• restricting the death penalty in cases of felony murder
• exempting the mentally handicapped and juvinille murders
• removing all virtually all limitations on the presentation of mitigating evidence
• requiring precision in the definition of aggravating factors; and
• requiring the jury to decide whether aggravating factors have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt (“Wikipedia.org”)

References

T. Coenin. Gregg v. Georgia. 2004, October 4 Retrieved from <http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2932>.

“Gregg v. Georgia.” Wikipedia.org. N.p., 2010. Web. 15 Oct 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_v._Georgia>.

“Furman v. Georgia.” Wikipedia.org. N.p., 2010. Web. 15 Oct 2010.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_v._Georgia>.

“Gregg v. Georgia .” The Lect Law Library. N.p., 2010. Web. 15 Oct 2010. <http://www.lectlaw.com/files/case26.htm>.