What did Furman v. Georgia hold about the death penalty as it was applied at the time?

What did Furman v. Georgia hold about the death penalty as it was applied at the time?

• A. The death penalty is always unconstitutional
• B. The death penalty, as applied, violated the Eighth Amendment due to arbitrariness
• C. It upheld the death penalty as a permissible punishment
• D. The death penalty is allowed only in capital crimes not murder

Answer: (B)

Furman v. Georgia focuses on how capital punishment was actually being used, not on the idea of the punishment itself. The Court held that, as it was administered at the time, the death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment because its application was arbitrary. Juries and judges could impose death in a way that depended on subjective, random factors rather than consistent, objective criteria, leading to inconsistent results and concerns about racial bias. Because of this arbitrariness in the process, the statutes in place were unconstitutional as applied. This isn’t saying the death penalty is forever impermissible. Rather, it struck down the existing schemes and required states to redesign their death-penalty statutes to curb arbitrariness—something later addressed in Gregg v. Georgia, which allowed the death penalty under guided, structured procedures with appeals.

Furman v. Georgia focuses on how capital punishment was actually being used, not on the idea of the punishment itself. The Court held that, as it was administered at the time, the death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment because its application was arbitrary. Juries and judges could impose death in a way that depended on subjective, random factors rather than consistent, objective criteria, leading to inconsistent results and concerns about racial bias. Because of this arbitrariness in the process, the statutes in place were unconstitutional as applied.

This isn’t saying the death penalty is forever impermissible. Rather, it struck down the existing schemes and required states to redesign their death-penalty statutes to curb arbitrariness—something later addressed in Gregg v. Georgia, which allowed the death penalty under guided, structured procedures with appeals.