Post by bourney92 on May 7, 2005 12:14:09 GMT -5
INTRODUCTION
On July 2, 1976, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Gregg v. Georgia, which allowed the death penalty to resume after a decade-long moratorium on executions. The majority of the Court held that the potential for unfairness which had been a hallmark of capital punishment in the past had been sufficiently ameliorated by the enactment of recent laws which guided its imposition. In 1972, the Court had concluded that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment under existing statutes because it was randomly applied. The imposition of the death penalty was akin to being struck by lightning: it was arbitrary, cruel, and unpredictable in its selective fury.
The death penalty's arbitrary quality meant that those with the power to hurl this lightning could be influenced by personal prejudices. There was ample evidence, for example, that juries, judges and prosecutors were more likely to inflict the death penalty on African-Americans, especially if the victim in the underlying crime was white. [7] The opening created by the arbitrariness of the process resulted in a flood of cases which were all too predictable: the death penalty was used primarily against the poor, minorities, and those unable to secure competent attorneys.
In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that the problem with the death penalty lay not with the punishment itself, but rather with the vague state statutes which had allowed such arbitrary applications. From among a variety of new statutes which states had passed after the death penalty was struck down in 1972, the Court found that those of Florida, Georgia, and Texas provided the guidance to juries necessary to prevent the arbitrary application of the death penalty.
But the Supreme Court's approval of these new statutes (and others which would imitate them) was tentative: it was too soon to tell if these new laws would also be applied in an arbitrary fashion, thereby violating the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
We now have twenty years of experience with these new statutes. Since 1976, well over 5,000 people have been sentenced to death; 330 people have been executed in 26 states; 3,061 people remain on death row awaiting execution. This is an appropriate time to ask if the death penalty has fulfilled the promise of justice and fairness made 20 years ago.
read the rest here bourney19928.proboards38.com/index.cgi?board=articles&action=display&thread=1115484422
On July 2, 1976, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Gregg v. Georgia, which allowed the death penalty to resume after a decade-long moratorium on executions. The majority of the Court held that the potential for unfairness which had been a hallmark of capital punishment in the past had been sufficiently ameliorated by the enactment of recent laws which guided its imposition. In 1972, the Court had concluded that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment under existing statutes because it was randomly applied. The imposition of the death penalty was akin to being struck by lightning: it was arbitrary, cruel, and unpredictable in its selective fury.
The death penalty's arbitrary quality meant that those with the power to hurl this lightning could be influenced by personal prejudices. There was ample evidence, for example, that juries, judges and prosecutors were more likely to inflict the death penalty on African-Americans, especially if the victim in the underlying crime was white. [7] The opening created by the arbitrariness of the process resulted in a flood of cases which were all too predictable: the death penalty was used primarily against the poor, minorities, and those unable to secure competent attorneys.
In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that the problem with the death penalty lay not with the punishment itself, but rather with the vague state statutes which had allowed such arbitrary applications. From among a variety of new statutes which states had passed after the death penalty was struck down in 1972, the Court found that those of Florida, Georgia, and Texas provided the guidance to juries necessary to prevent the arbitrary application of the death penalty.
But the Supreme Court's approval of these new statutes (and others which would imitate them) was tentative: it was too soon to tell if these new laws would also be applied in an arbitrary fashion, thereby violating the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
We now have twenty years of experience with these new statutes. Since 1976, well over 5,000 people have been sentenced to death; 330 people have been executed in 26 states; 3,061 people remain on death row awaiting execution. This is an appropriate time to ask if the death penalty has fulfilled the promise of justice and fairness made 20 years ago.
read the rest here bourney19928.proboards38.com/index.cgi?board=articles&action=display&thread=1115484422