Furman v. Georgia

Furman v. Georgia

Activist or Restrained?

It was restrained because it held onto the constitutional definition of cruel and unusual punishment at the time and wasn’t used to push any new or liberal policies and agendas. In fact, the decision pushed to fight against any future judge dealing out the death penalty based on personal convictions or discrimination.

Majority Opinion

Historical Significance

This was an important case in establishing whether or not the death penalty was considered cruel and unusual punishment due to the U.S. not having a clear uniform policy about it. Because of this case, it prompted many states since then to enact new death penalty laws to help prevent the discrimination from judges that the Supreme Court Justices were afraid of. It did not outlaw the death penalty at all, but simply helped encourage the creation of more fair state policies concerning it. It also prompted the decision in Gregg v. Georgia (1976) to establish a two-phase court system when it comes to the death penalty: the first phase deciding whether or not the defendant was innocent and the second phase deciding the sentencing.However, even with the new laws and modern regulations concerning a fair trial when it comes to the death penalty, many critics state that the system is still used against minorities more than whites and that discrimination is still aloft.

The majority opinion was that Furman would not suffer the death penalty, but they all had different reasons for coming up to that opinion which prompted them all to write their reasoning separately. Of the majority opinion, Justice Potter Stewart stated that the reason he deemed the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment is because Furman’s case as well as was no different than the thousands of other murder and rape cases, some of which are far worse, and is only being picked on for the death penalty because of racial discrimination. As a result, this case dealt with not only the Eighth Amendment concerning cruel and unusual punishment, but the Fourteenth Amendment concerning due process and a fair trial. Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. and Thurgood Marshall of the majority opinion agreed that the death penalty in general violated the Eighth Amendment and should be banned forever.

My Analysis

I’ve always been on the fence concerning the death penalty. On the one hand, I understand that justice is necessary to be given to some people, but on the other hand it sometimes seems somewhat inhumane. Either way, the decision to employ capital punishment is a sensitive one, and I think the Justices made the right decision in putting off the death penalty until a more unified system was employed in order to prevent discrimination on the people put on trial due to their race, sex, gender, or whatever. Obviously it was a close decision, but I think it’s helped us out for the better.

Historical Background

Minority Opinion

The dissenting opinions came from Chief Justice Burger and Justices Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, and William H. Rehnquist. They argued that the death penalty was well within the standards of modern society and the constitution as appropriate punishment for murder.

The death penalty has been around since the first Europeans landed on the soil that would eventually be known as the United States of America. However, it has seen many different transformations from things as barbaric as burning at the stake to hanging and general lynching. As American society progressed, people have been arguing for more humane ways of going about these cases. The standard of what American citizens considered “cruel and unusual” had become broader and as such, state courts had to be careful with when they dealt out capital punishment. That all came to a head when on August 11th, 1967, William Henry Furman accidentally shot resident William Joseph Micke, Jr as he was robbing Micke’s house. Although at first he was found guilty of murder since the accident happened as he was committing a robbery, he appealed to the Supreme Court and they came to a 5 to 4 decision on June 29, 1972: 5 votes for Furman and 4 votes against. The Supreme Court also tacked on Jackson v. Georgia and Branch v. Texas onto this as the cases were similar. In the former case however, Jackson had not killed but instead attempted robbery and committed rape. In the latter case, Branch too was only convicted of rape.

The Court Case of a Lifetime