Capital Punishment: Furman V. Georgia

The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects us to not be putted into cruel and unusual punishments, but when it comes to the death penalty, things become more complicated. In my personal opinion, I believe the absolute interpretation of the 8th Amendment and that the death penalty undoubtedly violates the 8th Amendment. Looking at the case of “Furman v. Georgia (1972)”, the Court invalidated death penalty laws in the end because the justices considered the punishment of the death penalty was too cruel and unusual to the Furman’ sin, accidentally killing people, and disproportionately using the death penalty would result in more serious problems to the poor and minorities. This decision fully reflected the reliability of

Hannah Patrick, one has only to look at some of the cases such as Coker v. Georgia to feel that the death penalty does not violate the Eight Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. However, the U.S. Supreme Court says it is excessive punishment for the rape of an adult woman and that it violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. In Coker v. Georgia, the defendant raped a woman and stabbed her to death. Eight months later he kidnapped another woman, raped her twice, and abandoned her to die after biting her severely. While he was serving multiple life terms in prison, he escaped and kidnapped, raped, and robbed a third woman at knifepoint (LeSage, 1978). I do not see how you can read about this case and decide as the U.S. Supreme Court did.

Going against the Supreme Court, which is the supreme law of the land, in the Worcester vs Georgia case demonstrates how Andrew Jackson abused his power as president. John Marshall, the chief justice at the time, ruled that the United States did not have possession or legal jurisdiction over Native American land, and no individual states had authority in Native American affairs. However, Jackson went above this, since the court did not order marshals to enforce it. In the Indian Removal packet, it was stated that in May 1830, Jackson signed the Indian removal act to exchange land with Native Americans. To do this, he coerced tribe leaders, sometimes by getting them drunk or high, into signing away their land through removal treaties. In the

In David M. Oshinsky’s book, Capital Punishment on Trial: Furman v. Georgia and the Death Penalty in Modern America, he discussed the case of Furman v. Georgia. He explores the controversy that capital punishment holds in the United States of America. The death penalty has been in practice for many centuries. For example, “In Massachusetts, where religion had played a key role in settlement, crimes like blasphemy, witchcraft, sodomy, adultery, and incest became capital offenses, through juries sometimes hesitated to convict” (Oshinsky, 2010). For the punishment of death these offenses do not fit the crime. However, capital punishment at this time was rarely criticized. The death penalty demanded many executions including public ones. Many of these were hangings and were public events. After the American Revolution the death penalty began to be questioned. For example, Benjamin Rush stated, “Capital punishments are the offspring of monarchial governments. Kings believe that they possess their crowns by a divine right. They assume the divine power of taking away human life” (Oshinsky, 2010). By the 1840’s there were organized groups opposing the death penalty such as the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment. Within the coming years, the support for capital punishment fluctuated. Throughout the book, Oshinsky explores the many cases leading up to the Furman v. Georgia decision.

The eighth Amendment states that the government is prohibited from cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty is a complete violation of this amendment. Every one, guilty or innocent has the right to live freely, and the government taking away this simplicity of rights, is unconstitutional.

Furman v. Georgia was a murder was committed at August 11, 1967. Mr. William Henry Furman was a poor man that dropped out of school at the sixth grade. He was a 26 year old man without a job living on the streets with the intent of commenting theft. The suspect came into the home of and William Micke in Savanah, Georgia, and started to break everything looking for valuables to steal. While rummaging through the house William Micke surprised Furman and he took off running. While attempting to escape the house he accidently (according to him) dropped the gun and killed the unknown house owner.

Death penalty, or also known as capital punishment, today is still used. Many oppose many support it. In the case Furman v. Georgia, the death penalty was abolished. But not fully, because it is still used today. In 1991 more than 2,600 people awaited execution but only fourteen were executed. Capital punishment should be legal, and should be used more often.

Next, I must begin and say that I cannot fathom the pain it must be to lose someone to a heinous crime or to be a victim of any crime that can warrant the punishment to be execution. However, there are more complications than benefits to the subject of capital punishment. A problem is how the severity of the death penalty can affect a case. Firstly, it takes much more steps to complete a case than a case wanting a life sentence which can be an emotional strain on victims or family of victims. Then, it is morally challenging for jury members to decide the fate of someone(apostrope)s life which can cause a guilty defendant to walk free, which contradicts the common argument that the death penalty removes a criminal off the streets. Another common defense to a ban on the death penalty is that because it will reduce the amount of prisoners, it would be less costly to the state of California. This is in

As stated by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, capital punishment is defined as “the practice of killing someone as punishment for serious crimes.” such as murder or treason. The Furman V. Georgia case was the reason some states reinstated the death penalty. It consists of three black men committing gruesome crimes, two being rape and one being murder in Georgia and Texas. Currently, there is thirty-one states that have legalized the death penalty and nineteen that have abolished it. Five hundred forty death row inmates have been executed in Texas since 1974 post- Furman v. Georgia, leading our nation as the number one state with the most executions performed.

This was an extremely hard question for me to answer. I spent a good hour trying to figure if I believe it’s justified or not. When I think about the mass murdering that has happened from people who have unjustly killed a great amount of innocent people, for example the Charleston Church Shooting and the Boston Bombing, I get angry, I want the retribution to be the death penalty. Then I think about the morals that my parents instilled in me. “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” Vengeance disguised as justice, isn’t something America should promote because reacting to violence with more violence breeds a culture of violence .The 8th Amendment states, “Excessive bail shall not be required nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. I”m pretty sure the death penalty falls into the “cruel and unusual” part of The 8th Amendment, so wouldn’t that make the death penalty unconstitutional? Are we violating The Bill of Rights? While others may think that the death penalty is warranted, I believe it’s unwarranted because it’s not necessary to kill someone to prevent them from causing further harm, and from the data displaying the use of the death penalty and the murder rates across the states, it shows that the use of the capital punishment doesn’t dissuade criminals from committing

The war between capital punishment and life without parole is an ongoing debate being waged between the states. Capital Punishment, or the death penalty, is the process by which an individual is put to death by the state for a capital offense, whereas life without parole is when a capital offender is sentenced to a life behind bars with no opportunity for freedom. The choice to adopt or abolish capital punishment is up to each state, and it is the state’s verdict to determine if capital punishment is unjust or not. I do not believe in the capital punishment for four very important reasons: to execute an inmate the humane and correct way costs more than a lifetime in prison, it is not a deterrent for crime, the innocent may be wrongly

The eighth amendment is designed to protect us from cruel and unusual punishment. Conservation of the United States Constitution, and all moral ideologies have been set aside. An old form of barbaric punishment and the saying "eye for an eye" is still being widely accepted by Americans today. The old form of barbaric punishment is capital punishment. No matter how "humane" the death penalty has become, it is still the killing of another human being. When people stand outside prisons and cheer that an individual was murdered, there is a problem. When people justify the killing of another person, there

Sub Point B: Michael Shammas a student at Harvard Law School says in his article “The Death Penalty Is Premeditated, Unconstitutional Murder” publish in Huffington post he says that the supreme court informs us that “carrying out of the death penalty... constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments” If it violates our amendments the death

The 8th Amendment prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishment which are the most quoted reasons to abolish the death penalty with the 14th amendment’s due process clause. It might be agreeable that murder can be justified if something threatens your survival - you will do what it takes to survive, especially in these days of mass shootings and mass murderers in public places.

To begin with, the death penalty is seen by many, including government officials, as a righteous punishment but it is undoubtedly, morally wrong. These same government officials that stand by the death penalty are also contradicting the U.S. Constitution. The 8th amendment states that the federal government is prohibited from inflicting cruel and unusual punishment onto a person. The country