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Death Penalty
Gregg v. Georgia
Decided: 1976
In brief
Reinstated the death penalty under revised statutes with sentencing guidelines and procedural safeguards.
The Court's ruling in depth
Four years after Furman, the Court approved Georgia's redesigned capital-sentencing scheme, featuring bifurcated guilt/penalty trials, statutory aggravating and mitigating factors, and mandatory state-supreme-court review. Gregg re-authorized capital punishment in America and shaped every state death-penalty statute since.