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Furman v. Georgia , 408 U.S. 238 (1972), was a landmark criminal case in which the United States Supreme Court decided that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
William Henry Furman (born 1942) is an American convicted felon who was the central figure in Furman v. Georgia (1972), the case in which the United States Supreme Court outlawed most uses of the death penalty in the United States .
Furman v. Georgia: 408 U.S. 238 (1972) Death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment; overruled by Gregg v. Georgia: Board of Regents v. Roth: 408 U.S. 564 (1972) Procedural due process in firing non-tenured professor Perry v. Sindermann: 408 U.S. 593 (1972) First Amendment; de facto professor tenure: Gravel v. United ...
In Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), Justice Brennan concurring wrote, "There are, then, four principles by which we may determine whether a particular punishment is 'cruel and unusual'." The "essential predicate" is "that a punishment must not by its severity be degrading to human dignity", especially torture.
In August, 1924, the Georgia General Assembly outlawed hanging and introduced electrocution instead. Georgia then used this method until 1972, when Furman v. Georgia declared the capital punishment procedures unconstitutional. Electrocution was re-instated, along with the death penalty, in 1976 as a result of Gregg v. Georgia.
The plurality of the Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia stated that the Eighth Amendment is not static, but that its meaning is interpreted in a flexible and dynamic manner to accord with, in the words of Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86 (1958), at page 101, "the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society ...
Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977) – The death penalty is unconstitutional for rape of an adult woman when the victim is not killed.; Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782 (1982) – The death penalty is unconstitutional for a person who is a minor participant in a felony and does not kill, attempt to kill, or intend to kill.
Capital punishment in the state of Vermont ended in 1972 for all crimes due to Furman v. Georgia.The state last executed a prisoner, Donald DeMag, in 1954, after he received the sentence for a double robbery-murder he committed after escaping prison.