furman v. Georgia
Year: 1972
Result: 5-4, favor Furman
Related Constitutional issue/Amendment: 8th Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment)
Civil rights or Civil liberties: Civil liberties
Significance/precedent: The death penalty was ruled cruel and unusual by the Constitution. Hundreds of inmates remained on death row as states revised what their Constitutions said in regards to the death penalty. The Court decreed that the death penalty must never be given based on discrimination, but only based on the brutality of the crime committed.
Quote from majority opinion: "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."
Summary of dissent: The death penalty had never been seen as unconstitutional before. Because it was a penalty that was in common practice at the time, it is unlikely that the framers meant to end it with the creation of the 8th Amendment
6-word summary: Death Penalty sometimes cruel and unusual
Result: 5-4, favor Furman
Related Constitutional issue/Amendment: 8th Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment)
Civil rights or Civil liberties: Civil liberties
Significance/precedent: The death penalty was ruled cruel and unusual by the Constitution. Hundreds of inmates remained on death row as states revised what their Constitutions said in regards to the death penalty. The Court decreed that the death penalty must never be given based on discrimination, but only based on the brutality of the crime committed.
Quote from majority opinion: "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."
Summary of dissent: The death penalty had never been seen as unconstitutional before. Because it was a penalty that was in common practice at the time, it is unlikely that the framers meant to end it with the creation of the 8th Amendment
6-word summary: Death Penalty sometimes cruel and unusual