In Furman v Georgia, the Supreme Court found that it must be the jury and not the judge that enforces the death penalty:…
Furman arose from the death sentences among them. Findings indicated that the right criteria were not provided to the juries in deciding to vote for the death penalty. However, the Supreme Court ruled out the three death sentences, making it clear that they consisted of cruel and unusual punishment and violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. “Justice William O. Douglas concluded that the death penalty was inconsistently and disproportionately applied to those who were economically and socially disadvantaged”. It was held that Furman rights had been violated. The court reasons for stating that Furman rights was violated constituted to the fact that there wasn’t any uniformity across states with regards to how certain people are treated and sentenced to death and later executed. The court also came up with many factors that indicated error, in the sense that many blacks are convicted and sentenced to death more than white people. The aftermath of this case caused many states to re-write their statutes for capital offense and also to change their death penalty as well as some of their criminal procedures to see to it that the death penalty were based on known procedure and punitive deterrent rather than racial disparity and discrimination or any other factor that will not be deemed fair to the society and especially African…
In the article “Death, Reason, and Judgment: The American Experience”, which was posted on the ‘Filosofia Politica’ website (1), Ronald J. Allen (2) argues in a high academic level on the meaning and nature of errors in the imposition of capital punishment. Ronald J. Allen is the John Henry Wigmore Professor of Law at Northwestern University in Chicago. This paper will analyse and discuss the theories of the article and address two issues raised by Allen: the utilitarian and normative components of capital punishment, and the costs of errors of capital punishment.…
“ The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make-up one’s mind about nothing- to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts” – John Keats.…
In Furman vs. Georgia Furman was convicted of murder and two others for rape. “Juries had convicted Furman for murder and two other individuals for rape—all three were African American—and then imposed the death penalty.” (Source A). "Furman v. Georgia (1972)." American Government. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2010. . The three pleaded that the death penalty is against the eighth amendment, which prohibits any man from suffering cruel and unusual punishment, and when Furman and his counterparts case reached the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. “So the Court ruled for the first time that capital punishment violated the Eighth Amendment.” “All executions were put on hold following the decision.”(Source B). Hinds, Maurine. Furman v. Georgia and the DEATH PENALTY DEBATE. Berkely Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2005. 79-80. Print. The significance of Furman v. Georgia is that this case was the first case that was ruled violating the Eighth amendment and that it halted…
The establishment of the death penalty dates back to around the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the code of King Hammurabi of Babylon. Over the years, the death penalty and its purpose has varied and changed. Furman versus Georgia is what sparked the modern day death penalty era. The Supreme Court Case dealt with an African-American man, William Henry Furman, in which he was convicted of murder. The decision that resulted from Furman versus Georgia enforced many states along with the national legislature to reevaluate their level of capital offense in order to guarantee that the death penalty would not be conducted in an unjust manner. The outcome of the decision from Furman versus Georgia triggered confusion concerning the death penalty. It led…
The main argument in this article is that the Supreme Court has failed in their duties to regulate the death penalty. This purported failure is attributed to the Supreme Court not following their own terms and their high-profile involvement in overseeing state and federal death penalty practices (Steiker & Steiker, 1998). The authors argue that the Court’s high profile involvement is in fact creating a “False but powerful impression that the death penalty practices have, in fact, been meaningfully transformed” (Steiker & Steiker, 1998, para. 4).…
There was a violation of Furman’s 8th and 14th Amendment rights. The 8th Amendment prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail and fines, and imposing cruel and unusual punishment. The 14th Amendment protects the rights of citizens of the United States, which Furman was. The death penalty decision was very controversial. Many people thought the death penalty was unconstitutional in all instances and declared it to be a cruel and unusual punishment. Also, since Furman was African American, he should not be given the death penalty because of his race. There were many similar cases involving white murderers, but they were not given the death penalty. The Supreme Court declared that they would not administer the death penalty in a discriminatory…
Territo, L., Halsted, J.B., & Bromley, M.L. (2004). Crime and Justice in America: A Human Perspective (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.…
In the article “The Federal Government Plans To Seize Nebraska’s Illegal Execution Drug Shipment When It Arrives In The U.S.”, author Chris McDaniel writes about a letter from the FDA explaining that Nebraska next shipment of execution drugs would be illegal. As well, the repeal of the death penalty that happened in the Nebraska legislature. The death penalty is a dividing issue in the United States because the ongoing debate over its constitutionality. In this debate over its constitutionality, I side against the death penalty. I am against the death penalty because if exonerating evidence surfaces after a prisoner is executed there is no way to fix it. Also, I question the appropriate method for execution with the issue of cruel and unusual…
The Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution has generated a considerable amount of debate and controversy surrounding the question: what is considered “cruel and unusual punishment.” The important issue that develops from this amendment is whether or not the death penalty is constitutional. Over the decades, the Supreme Court fails to completely confront the issue by refusing to address any issue that falls outside of the case in question. As a result, today’s court is left with many specific instances where the death penalty is acceptable or unconstitutional, but not an overall principle that the death penalty is consistent or inconsistent with the Constitution. In Roper v. Simmons, seventeen year-old Christopher Simmons is tried as an adult…
The death penalty is an archaic procedure which operates on a rampant racial bias. Its use is not only tremendously expensive but also ineffective in complying to its purpose : deterring crime and controlling criminal behavior. The courts have struggled to define “ cruel and unusual,” because the term is ultimately vague and the definitions applied to terms like cruel and unusual change over time. Customs also change over time as societies viewpoints and ideologies adapt to into the future. An example of changes in the definition about the 8th amendment is seen in the landmark case of Weems vs United States (1910), where Weems was imprisoned for falsifying a public and official document and as a result was sentenced to 15 years. On top of his…
Many groups in American history have traveled various paths to challenge the one dimensional thinking that has been etched in our cultural thought process due to the Constitutional language this country was built on. While these pathways have their individual twists and turns, they all have intersected for the common cause of equality. Hispanic, African American, Homosexual, and Disabled Americans are just a few of the groups that have each raised a cohesive voice to synergize the cause. One group that sometimes gets overlooked but still continues to carry the torch is Women. Apart from the Equal Rights Amendment and the Suffrage movement, the path of gender equality…
Paternoster, R., & Brame, R. (2003). An Empitical Analysis of Maryland’s Death Sentencing System with Respect to the Influence of Race and Legal Jurisdiction. .…
The death penalty is a legal process whereby a person is put to death as a punishment for a crime. The death penalties are usually carried out for retribution of a heinous murder committed, such as aggravated murder, felony killing or contract killing. Every state handles what method they want to use to put a person to death according to their state laws. The death penalty is given by lethal injection, electrocution; gas chamber firing squad and hanging are some of the ways that certain states may carry out their death penalty procedures. I will present some views and personal opinion dealing with the pros and cons of the death penalty. The death penalty is such a life altering subject that affects all parties’ lives that are involved in the death penalty process. I personally have mixed feeling about the death penalty. I don’t know really if I would be a person that would support the death penalty or not. I do feel that murdering someone is wrong, and since no one really close to me has never been murdered. I don’t know if my feeling would change as being a supporter for the death penalty or not. I can only pray that God will help this county to make the right choices when comes to life or death.…