Furman v. georgia Essay Example for Free

Fur gentlemans gentleman v. georgia EssayThe demise penalization or capital penalisation has been part of our humanity for years and years. Existed since ancient condemnations, according to people a somebody who has committed an uncouth act, was meter to decease penalty or capital punishment. The close penalty begins back in the eighteenth century B.C. in the code of king Hammaurabi of Baylon who was accused of committing 25 crimes. In years past, the punishments where more biography-and- remnant then today, the execution procedures had no boundaries, forms of killing where endless. Drowning, whacking, damnatio ad Bestia which was goal cause by a buggy animal, dismemberment dividing the body into quarter-usu every last(predicate)y with an ax, throwing then off a high tail end, impalement unmatchable of the most crucial consisting in beating them with a stick, buried alive, the guillotine decapitation, wretch they refer as the quick, clean and humane manner of doing the killing, dying by torture, stoning crucifying was to a fault consider a death penalty act. Jesus deliverer was crucified in Jerusalem part of his punishment for being the son of God. Within times pass the mental process change a little to decapitation, execution, hanging, electrocution, execution by gas and the unity use to date lethal injection.(1. History of death penalty) One of the shimmys that reach the Supreme butterfly and change the righteousnesss in the linked States roughly the death penalty was the case of Furman v. Georgia in 1971. William Henry Furman claimed that his sentencing violated his rights guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment. (The 14th Amendment was passed after the American Civil War, and was designed to prevent states from denying due process and bear on security measure chthonic the law to their citizens. And was dividing into sections the first section of the amendment was to revolutionize federalism, stated that no state could deprive a ny person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction.The equal protection of the laws, gradually the Supreme Court interpreted the amendment to mean the guarantees of the bill of rights apply to the states as puff up as the national government.) (2. Our documents) Furmans v. Georgia Furman was a 26year old man with very little education. A man that struggle his whole life about making a living, was very depressed and coloured all the time there were days when he didnt have anything to eat, and thats when he started breaking into homes to be able to survive.He was caught a couple of times but was giving a cast down or susp stop sentence. A psychiatrist had already diagnosed him with emotionally ghastly and mentally impaired. But was however entering homes in order to live. On August 11, 1967 Furman enter a home and was going through some things when he heard a noise and try to escape the home, some said he drop the g un and when it hit the ground it shot and others said he felt and the gun sacking killing Mr. William Joseph Micke Jr. a husband and father of 5 children. The death was truly a tragic, it was an possibility that resulted in writ of execution, and his carrying a gun was to protect himself in case or to even scare a person and be able to run without any incidents.Furman despite of his conditions was convicted of murder and sentence to death in a one day trial. Although Furman did not intend to kill the resident he regales committed murder during the commission of a felony, and was an aggravating factor, and the one in particular which made him eligible for the death penalty (3. Murderpedia) When the trial approached he pleaded not guilty by means of insanity, which was the advice of his appointed attorney. The court at that time order another psychiatric test and the physicians who examined agreed that he was mentally deficient and in the account statement they concluded that Furm an experienced mild to moderate psychotic episodes associate with convulsive disorder. After a a couple of(prenominal) weeks in a hospital assigned by the court, the Dr. said he knows whats right from wrong and that he was competent to stand trial for murder.Although killing was an accident, the state of Georgia at the time authentic that the death penalty be giving weather a murder took place during the commission of a felony. Furman had one thing going against him at all times he was a black man in the 60s and 70s and most blacks guilty of committing murder in that state was a reason enough to sentence to death penalty. In 1972 the case reach the Supreme Court which they rule 5-4 that the death penalty as then administered violated the 8th amendment proscription against cruel and unusual punishment and the 14th amendment equal protection clause.The courts typically have intercourse the determination with a majority opinion written and sign by one of the justices. On occasion the court will issue a per curiam decision which takes the form of a brief, unassigned opinion. All 9 judges had different opinions, although 5 justices voted to reverse the death sentences, there concurring opinions revealed that it was parlous coalition. Each majority justice, Mr. Douglas, Mr. Stewart, Mr. White, Mr. Marshall, and Mr. Brennan, wrote a separate concurring opinion supporting the majority decision. Each believed that Furman had therefore been deprived of his constitutional rights. The justices could not agree on an argument striking down the death penalty across the board, however. This unusual procedure reflected not only the intense differences of opinion within the majority, but similarly the difficulty of deciding the constitutionalityor presumed lack thereofof the death sentence.The four dissenters, Chief Justice Burger and Justices Blackmun, Powell, and Rehnquist, also wrote extensive opinions expressing their views against the majority opinion. Several argue d taking the position of judicial restraint that the death penalty was a matter for the people to decide, through their legislatures. Others argued that emotional appeals were not appropriate in Supreme Court opinions. Finally, the dissenters were disturbed by the erosion of federalism and the unnecessarily invasive judicial activism practiced by the justices of the Warren Court. They said that it was disproportionally apply to the poor and despised that it was applied in an arbitrary and capricious fashion. Justice Douglas was the man that came up with the idea to review the historic of the death sentence penalty for both America and England.This justice noticed that the laws was highly inequitable because it was applied only to the minorities, the outcast and the smaller population in the country. He decide that the death penalty was unusual and against Gods Plan. Furman centered on the convictions and death sentences of 3 African American men. His case ended changing the way th ey see each individual case. (4. Law Cornell My opinion on this case is that everyone should be treaty equally, his intent was to commit a crime of robbery not a murder.Unfortunaly we are all aware that the vicious justice system in the United States is imperfect and that we are aware of the flaws that exist within our system. I would of punished him with many years in prison but not the death penalty due to it wasnt his intentions. Furman did not outlaw the death penalty. It just undeniable states to prevent random, racial, unfair results by giving juries management to apply the death penalty fairly. After Furman, most states modified their death penalty laws. The tonic laws created a two-phase system for death penalty cases. In the first phase, the dialog box decides if the suspect is guilty of murder. In the second phase, the jury hears new evidence to decide if the defendant deserves the death penalty.The new laws gave juries guidance for making this decision. (1,2,3,4) Fol lowing the case of Furman v. Georgia in 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty systems were unconstitutional violations of the ordinal Amendments prevention on cruel and unusual punishments. After this case many states changed their death penalty laws. Four years later in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), the Court reaffirmed the death penalty as constitutional. troy Gregg had been rear 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. The Court refused to do so. The Court found that Georgias system for applying the death penalty was judicious and careful. Gregg had gone through two trials one to determine guilt and one for sentencing.Further, specific jury findings of aggravating circumstances were necessary to impose the death penalty. There was therefore no Eighth Amendment violation, and the death penalty was constitutional. (5. Georgia encycloped ia/ 6. Lectlaw) Gregg v. Georgia took place on March, 1976. The case dealt with administrative law this legal field controls the due process clause of the United States Constitution. The due process clause is defined as the governments obligation to respect and exert the legal rights of American people during and after they are arrested.Both the Federal and state governments are ask to protect and preserve a persons human rights and liberties. All governments of the United States are required to treat citizens in a fair and respectful manner during the arrest process. When he appealed his sentence as cruel and unusual and a violation of the Eighth Amendment, the US Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision upheld the sentence.The court ruled that the death penalty was an appropriate punishment in extreme criminal cases and that Georgia had settled appropriate values and other precautions to guide a jurys considerations in capital cases. He was sentence to death penalty do to the fact that h e entered the house armed so he meant danger to the community and that his purpose was to commit the crime. The United States Supreme Court stated that the execution of Troy Leon Gregg was Constitutional due to the fact that Mr. Gregg was tried, head and sentenced through a formal judicial system. The night forward he was supposed to be killed, Gregg escaped from prison and was killed in North Carolina following a fight. (7 law cornell) In this case the court upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty, defending statutes that guide judges and juries in the decision to issue the death sentence.The Court did, however, state that the madatory use of the death penalty would be prohibited under the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment. The defendent in this case, Gregg, had been convicted on two counts of armed robbery and two counts of murder. The jury was instructed by the trial judge, who was following Georgia state law, to return with either a decision of life imp risonment or the death penalty. Justice Byron stated in his opinion that Gregg had failed in his burden of demonstrate that the Georgia Supreme Court had not done all it could to prevent discriminatory practices in the forming of his sentence. This decision became the first time the Court stated that punishment of death does not invariably violate the Constitution. (8. terminal penalty)