Furman v. Georgia | |
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Argued January 17, 1972 Decided June 29, 1972 | |
Full case name | William Henry Furman v. State of Georgia |
Citations | 408 U.S. 238 (more) 92 S. Ct. 2726; 33 L. Ed. 2d 346; 1972 U.S. LEXIS 169 |
Case history | |
Prior | Cert. granted, 403 U.S. 952. |
Subsequent | Rehearing denied, 409 U.S. 902. |
Holding | |
The arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. | |
Court membership | |
| |
Case opinions | |
Per curiam | |
Concurrence | Douglas |
Concurrence | Brennan |
Concurrence | Stewart |
Concurrence | White |
Concurrence | Marshall |
Dissent | Burger, joined by Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist |
Dissent | Blackmun |
Dissent | Powell, joined by Burger, Blackmun, Rehnquist |
Dissent | Rehnquist, joined by Burger, Blackmun, Powell |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amends. VIII, XIV | |
Abrogated by | |
Gregg v. Georgia (1976) |
Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), was a landmark criminal case in which the United States Supreme Court invalidated all then existing legal constructions for the death penalty in the United States. It was a 5–4 decision, with each member of the majority writing a separate opinion.[1]: 467–68 Following Furman, in order to reinstate the death penalty, states had to at least remove arbitrary and discriminatory effects in order to satisfy the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.[1]: 468
The decision mandated a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty. This case resulted in a de facto moratorium of capital punishment throughout the United States, which ended when the case Gregg v. Georgia was decided in 1976 to allow the death penalty.[2][3]
The Supreme Court consolidated the cases Jackson v. Georgia and Branch v. Texas with the Furman decision, thereby invalidating the death penalty for rape; this ruling was confirmed post-Gregg in Coker v. Georgia. The Court had also intended to include the case of Aikens v. California, but between the time Aikens had been heard in oral argument and a decision was to be issued, the Supreme Court of California decided in California v. Anderson that the death penalty violated the state constitution; Aikens was therefore dismissed as moot, since this decision reduced all death sentences in California to life imprisonment.[4]