Gregg V. Georgia's Death Penalty

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Since colonial times, Georgia has been associated with capital punishment, with executions recorded as early as the 1730s. Crimes including murder, rape and robbery were punishable by capital punishment. Prior to the 1920s, hanging was a method used to execute individuals committing criminal acts. Others, were condemned by a firing squad and burned to death. In 1924, Georgia first utilized the electric chair to execute inmates. Electrocution overthrew hanging as the primary method of execution until 2001, where the Georgia Supreme Court declared the practice as “unconstitutional and unusual”. After that declaration, Georgia shifted to using lethal injection. Georgia proceeded to execute more than 900 people, making it the fourth highest number …show more content…

On June 29, 1972 the Supreme Court proceeded to nullify 40 death penalty statutes. Thus, removing 629 inmates from death row. After the trial, the death penalty was suspended throughout the United States. William Furman remained incarcerated until his parole in 1984 (Death Penalty Information Center, 2011).
After the Supreme Court changed the rules of capital punishment, many states rewrote their death penalty statutes. Gregg v. Georgia became the first man (Troy Leon Gregg) in Georgia to be convicted under Georgia’s new statute. Gregg was found guilty for two counts of armed robbery and murder and was sentenced to death. Greg had two trials- one for determining guilt and the second trial for sentencing.
The Supreme Court felt that the death penalty in his case was constitutional and that the eighth amendment was not violated because there was significant evidence of “aggravating circumstances” where it was necessary to impose the death penalty. Gregg disagreed and said the death penalty itself is unconstitutional and that it violated the eight (cruel and unusual punishment) and fourteenth (civil rights) amendment. The court heard his case in 1976 and

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