Furman V. Georgia Case

Comparing these two cases, the legal system did not really work fairly to show justice because if in accordance with the absolute interpretation of the 8th Amendment and the 14th Amendment, Gregg will never be sentence to death; this not only unfair to him but also disrespects for the authority of the legal system. Let us finally look at the case of “Callins v. Collins” in 1994, in this case, even though the convict Callins was put to death by lethal injection, there was a justice stood up to struggle on save Callins’ life, and his name was Harry Andrew Blackmun, who had voted in “Gregg v. Georgia” to restore the death penalty. Blackmun claimed that he had no longer supported the death penalty because he did not believe that the capital sentencing procedures were still working, and restoring the death penalty was a big

The case began with Warren McCleskey, an African-American man who was sentenced to death in 1978 for killing a white police officer during the robbery of a Georgia furniture store.  McCleskey appealed his conviction and sentence, relying on the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of Equal Protection to argue that the death penalty in Georgia was administered in a racially discriminatory -- and therefore unconstitutional--manner.

African Americans get the most brutality in communities. “Over the last 500 years people of different race, especially African Americans, have encountered a pattern of state sanctioned violence and civil and human rights abuse. To enforce capitalist exploitation and racial oppression the government and its police, courts, prisons, and military have beaten, framed, murdered and executed private persons, and brutally repressed struggles for freedom, justice, and self-determination. (Sundiata,1)”. The African Americans began to fight back against the beating of their race with riots. These riots and brutality started during the middle 1900’s. The government also takes the responsibility for the actions and non-actions of the police officers during race riots and rebellions. But why do blacks feel like they get beaten and harassed by law enforcement? Over the years, police have come to a conclusion that just because someone of a different race is in a luxurious car, they must be dealing drugs or looking for trouble in the community. Law enforcement isn’t trying to harass the community by pulling

In 1971 one of the key cases in United Sates History and also the state of Georgia was Furman v. Georgia. Furman was an African American male that broke in to a home to steal another citizens items. During the robbery the victim woke up and scared Furman. While Furman was fleeing the seen the owner gave him chase, and Furman accidentally drop his handgun and it went off killing the victim. When Furman was arrested he was told that if found guilty, he could be facing the death penalty. Furman appealed the execution to the Supreme Court, and argued that under the 14th amendment he would not be allowed pursuit of happiness, and liberty the American way. The Supreme Court heard his case and overturned the

In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty systems then in place were unconstitutional violations of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual” punishments. In response to the decision many states changed their death penalty systems. Four years later in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), the Court reaffirmed the death penalty as constitutional. Troy Gregg had been found guilty of murder and armed robbery and sentenced to death. He asked the Court to go further than it had in the Furman case, and rule the death penalty itself unconstitutional (n.d.,Web).

Furman v. Georgia proved that the way the death penalty was administered was unconstitutional. William Furman was apprehended while he was found robbing a sleeping individual’s home. During the trial Furman claimed he had tripped and his weapon had accidentally discharged and struck the victim. However, the statement he had given the police was

Over the past five centuries, black people have endured violence in many different ways. Today, police officers use deadly, excessive force that leads to inexcusable assaults, beatings and shootings. This demonstrates the governmentТs role in initiating and prolonging racial suppression and provides the explanation for police brutality to become a federal crime(Black Radical Congress, 3). In history, racist violence, police brutality, has been used to suppress the racial blacks and to preserve power and privileges for the white race. This was done for five primary purposes. First, it has forced black people into slavery or low wage situations. Secondly, to steal land and other resources. A 3-rd was to maintain social control. A fourth

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.

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.

But then, several days later one of the psychiatrists revised their medical opinion. Because he was not insane, the case would go on. The state of Georgia charged him with murder and issued the death penalty. This was because Georgia state law stated that any form of murder issued with a felony was punishable by death. Furman’s attorneys knew that the murder had been accidental and that Furman was genuinely sorry for the action he had caused, so they decide there was only one other path out: The Supreme Court.

1972 - In Furman v. Georgia the Court rules that all existing death penalty laws violate the Constitution. The Court cited "arbitrariness" and racial imbalances in the application of death sentences. As a consequence, many states rewrite their death penalty laws.

The above cases fought to prevent this type of practice from occurring over the years and one such case helped even further, Foster v. Chatman. In Foster v. Chatman, in 1986 Timothy Tyrone Foster was charged and convicted of murdering a white woman. The prosecution in his case used peremptory strikes to remove all four of the qualified black jurors. In this case the defense argued this violated the decision in Batson v. Kentucky, prohibiting this type of behavior. However, the courts in the case shifted the burden to the prosecution, who could justify their action and the court allowed them to continue with the case. Foster was convicted of the murder and the death sentence was imposed. The U.S. Supreme court reviewed the case and determined from notes obtained from the prosecution in the 1986 case, that the prosecution indeed violated the ruling Batson, since their notes indicated that they were racially motivated to remove black juries. (Foster v. Chatman,

In 1948, lynching became a part of police brutality. They stereotype blacks as animals instead of humans. African-Americans had no rights or equality as whites did. Police consider white kids who committed crime were misguided but black children at the age of 14 to 15 were already hardcore criminals. In 1965, the blacks became brothers and fought back for their community by trying to drive out the LAPD.

The author of this article is Cornelia Grumman won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 and found the organization the First Five Years Fund where she advocated for stronger federal policies. The audience she could be targeting would be the government to create stricter guidelines when imposing capital punishment. The purpose of this article is to give awareness of how race can create bias factors in the justice system. It has been commonly seen

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional because the capital-punishment laws gave states the discretion to impose the death sentence in a manner the states deemed appropriate; therefore, disproportionately imposing the sentence on the disadvantaged, African-Americans and other races or groups of people that states identified as insufficient . Nevertheless, it is a known fact that race and poverty have always corrupted our legal system when loopholes in the Thirteenth Amendment allowed convict leasing to emerge through a series of restrictive laws known as the Black Codes, resulting in the unjustified incarceration of African-Americans. Unfortunately, in 21st Century America, our criminal justice system continues