Historical Developments Surrounding Capital Punishment

Throughout the history of man there has always existed a sort of rule pertaining to retribution for just and unjust acts. For the just came rewards, and for the unjust came punishments. This has been a law as old as time. One philosophy about the treatment of the unjust is most controversial in modern time and throughout our history; which is is the ethical decision of a death penalty. This controversial issue of punishment by death has been going on for centuries. It dates back to as early as 399 B.C.E., to when Socrates was forced to drink hemlock for his “corruption of the youth” and “impiety”.

In 1976, the United States Supreme Court, in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976), Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262 (1976), and Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U.S. 242 (1976) held that the discretion to impose the death sentence for specific crimes was to be bi-furcated into two separate trials. The first to determine guilt or innocence; the second to determine the aggravating and mitigating factors. The State of Oceana adopted the findings of the U.S. Supreme Court in People v. Wende, 600 P. 2d 1071 (Cal: Supreme Court 1979) In

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).

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.

Three juries had convicted and imposed the death penalty on their accused without any guidelines to go by in their decision. This case (Furman vs. Georgia) represents the first time the Supreme Court ruled against the death penalty. The dissenting Justices argued that the courts had no right to challenge legislative judgment on the effectiveness and justice of punishments. The majority however held that the death penalty was cruel and unusual

In this paper I shall argue that capital punishment is immoral. In Furman v. Georgia we find a landmark case in which the legality of capital punishment is exposed. Judges Stewart, White, and Douglas found the death penalty to be immoral given the arbitrary forces involved. ("Furman v. Georgia") They believed this was causing a higher number of minorities specifically blacks to be subjected to

In the United States, 36 states participate in capital punishment in one or more of the five different forms, including lethal injection, electrocution, gas chambers, firing squad, and hanging (“Description of Execution”). After being banned in 1972, several states sought to bring back capital punishment by providing sentence guidelines for both jury and judges when deciding the fit case in which to impose death (“Introduction to the Death Penalty”). These guidelines proved the punishment was constitutional under the Eight Amendment, proving it wasn’t “cruel and unusual” punishment under the correct circumstances. Three procedural reforms were approved by the case Gregg vs. Georgia, including bifurcated trials (separating guilt and penalty phases of trial), automatic appellate reviews of court decisions, and proportionality review to help eliminate sentencing disparities (“Introduction to the Death Penalty”). Ever since these changes in 1976, the death penalty

1976 - Death penalty statutes are upheld generally by the Court's decision in Gregg v. Georgia.

Following the decline in the support of the death penalty, a moratorium on executions began in 1972 during the case Furman v. Georgia. Furman argued that the death penalty was arbitrary and violated the constitution (Mallicoat and Brown 255-280). In a five to four vote, the Supreme Court

The death penalty continues to a topic that is largely debated in the United States, but it was never more unpopular than in the 1970s when it actually came to a halt. A moratorium is a temporary prohibition brought about when “the Supreme Court issued its opinion on Furman v. Georgia which struck down the death penalty nationally.” The moratorium lasted from 1972-1976 and was brought back during the time when Richard Nixon initiated the war on crime and condemned the decision on the Furman, “These efforts to reinstate the death penalty succeeded when, only four years after Furman, opened the door again on executions in the U.S. with its ruling on Gregg v. Georgia.” After the Gregg decision, the Supreme Court gave each state the choice to implement

Georgia case was another reason the supreme court went into moratorium because the death penalty was unconstitutional. Furman murder was accidental but the court reviewed the case and said since it took place during a robbery he was found guilty. Furman said it was a violation of his rights (14 amendment), the supreme court heard of the case and said it was cruel and unusual punishment. To prevent this from happening again the (Gregg v. Georgia and Furman v. Georgia) the supreme court went into moratorium because of the violation of rights for the petitioners and don’t want cruel and usually happening in the United States.

Supreme Court cases that have felt the death penalty was unconstitutional include Roberts vs. Louisiana and Furman vs. Georgia. Roberts vs. Louisiana, (1976) was a case that tried Robert, who

To address the issue of unguided jury discretion, some states began using mandatory death penalty sentences for certain crimes. This practice, however, was declared unconstitutional in Woodson v. North Carolina. Other states tried to limit juror discretion by providing sentencing guidelines, such as aggravating and mitigating factors, for the judge and jury. These guided discretion statutes were approved in 1976 by the Supreme Court in Gregg v. Georgia. Three other procedural reforms were approved by the Court in this case; the first was bifurcated trials, another reform was the practice of automatic appellate review of convictions and sentence,

Additionally, capital punishment and how it is practiced has been greatly shaped by several Supreme Court rulings. In the 1972 case of Furman v. Georgia, it was determined that the death penalty sentencing as it was then carried out violated due process rights and was considered cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and in 1976 it was decided that state laws that mandated the death penalty for all first-degree murders were ruled unconstitutional. Perhaps one of the most important court cases regarding capital punishment is the 1976 case of Gregg v. Georgia, which reinstated the death penalty, making it acceptable as long as the sentencing process is reasonable. This Supreme Court ruling also developed an important two-staged process for appropriate death penalty sentencing with the determination of guilt or innocence being decided in the first stage and if found guilty, a second stage follows which involves a kind of mini-trial for sentencing options which weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the crime. Executing mentally retarded people was ruled cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional by the Court in 2002, and in 2005 the Court made capital punishment for juvenile offenders illegal. Furthermore, other Supreme Court cases have ruled that capital punishment may only be imposed when it is reasonably

“In a monumental 1972 decision by the US Supreme Court, all but a few death penalty statutes in the United States were declared unconstitutional” (Radelet & Borg, 2000,