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Death Penalty
Furman v. Georgia
Decided: 1972
In brief
Struck down existing death penalty schemes as arbitrarily applied, effectively suspending capital punishment nationwide.
The Court's ruling in depth
In a fractured per curiam decision with nine separate opinions, the Court held that existing death-penalty statutes, which gave juries unfettered discretion, produced arbitrary and racially discriminatory results in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The ruling voided every death sentence in the country and imposed a de facto moratorium on executions until states redesigned their statutes.