Legal Definitions - Furman v. Georgia (1972)

Furman v. Georgia (1972) was a case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court that dealt with the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment in death penalty cases. The case involved three petitioners who were sentenced to death for their crimes.

The Supreme Court was asked to determine whether the death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment when applied in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner. The Court found that it did, as the death penalty was disproportionately applied to minorities and the poor.

As a result of this decision, the use of the death penalty was put on hold while states revised their criminal statutes to ensure that the death penalty was not applied arbitrarily or discriminatorily. The death penalty was later reinstated in 1976 in the case of Gregg v. Georgia.

Example: William Henry Furman, Lucious Jackson, and Hamilton Branch were all sentenced to death for their crimes. The Supreme Court found that the death penalty was unconstitutional when applied in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner, as it disproportionately harmed minorities and the poor.