The case that effectively abolished the death penalty in the US

In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled Georgia’s death penalty law unconstitutional, and with it every death penalty statute in effect at the time. Merely a decade earlier, such a decision would have been highly unlikely. However, the mid- 1960s and 1970s were a highly fluid time, with constitutional questions rooted in civil rights concerns at the center of the debate. Passionate reporters released news articles across the United States, calling the death penalty a “double standard” reserved for “the victim of circumstance.” (1) Other articles questioned its constitutionality altogether, considering the death penalty a “cruel and unusual punishment” prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. (2) The courts seemed to be as equally divided as the people when it came to capital punishment, resulting in several extremely close decisions. With a 5-4 majority, Furman v Georgia forced the states to rewrite their capital punishment statutes to assure that courts would not administer the death penalty in a discriminatory manner. If they did not do so, the death penalty in America would cease to exist. 

VIDEO SUMMARY OF FURMAN V GEORGIA:

Footnotes:
(1) Mary Ann. Callan 1960. "Death Penalty Debated: Tilt Marks Town Hall Luncheon DEATH PENALTY." Los Angeles Times    
    March 16, 1972
(2)"State High Court to Hear Attacks on Death Penalty.” 1967 Los Angeles Times (1923-1995)

Image courtesy of supremecourt.gov