Free Gregg v. Georgia Essays and Papers

Citation: Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976) Facts: The petitioner, Troy Leon Gregg, in this case had been charged with the armed robbery and murder of two men (Findlaw, 2015). Gregg was found guilty by a jury of two counts of armed robbery, and two counts of murder, after which the judge instructed jurors that it could decide between a sentence of either life in prison, or the death penalty, and they could only do so if they found beyond a reasonable doubt that the murders were committed during

The Increasing Danger of Executing the Innocent." DPIC. Death Penalty Information Center, 1 July 1997. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. . "Executions by Year." DPIC. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. . "FURMAN v. GEORGIA." Furman v. Georgia. The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. . "GREGG v. GEORGIA." Gregg v. Georgia. The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. . "Infobase Learning - Login." Infobase Learning - Login. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. .

According to the code of Virginia’s Legislative law a crime that fits the death penalty criterion would be anything from first-degree murder. Some circumstances could include when the murder was heinous, if the person is considered a future danger, premeditated killing of anyone with attempted robbery, or as an act of terrorism. Other crimes would include if the murder victim was under the age and the killer was older than 21, premeditated killing of any law enforcement officer, and the killing of

would kill one another without any evidence, just he-said she-said. After facing many legal challenges in the Supreme Court, in 1972, the Furman v. Georgia case declared capital punishment unconstitutional. The case was ruled unconstitutional, because capital punishment violated the Eighth Amendment, cruel and unusual punishment. During the Furman v. Georgia case, the court took note that there were no objective standards for when capital punishment could be given. Justice Potter Stewart described capital

...nt.pdf. (n.d.). Giardina, B. (2010). Capital Punishment and Specific Offense Deterrence. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. University of New Hampshire, Ann Arbor. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.uta.edu/docview/852994781?accountid=7117 Gregg v. Georgia. 428 U.S 153 (1976). Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/428/153 LaChappelle, N. L. (2012). Placing the American Death Penalty in the Global Context: A Test of the Marshall Hypothesis. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

and establishes that it is not one of the "cruel and unusual punishments," prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. For instance, in the case Gregg v. Georgia (1976), the death penalty was proven to be "constitutionally permissible form of punishment under a properly written statute..." (Bergman 503). The Gregg v. Georgia (1976) case was about a defendant named Gregg, whom was sentenced to death after finding him guilty of armed robbery and murder. This case proved that capital punishment does not violate

of those who support it. To accurately examine the issues surrounding the death penalty, I feel it is important to address the history of it. In 1972, Furman v. Georgia, the court ruled that the death penalty, as applied, was an arbitrary punishment and was therefore unconstitutional under the eight and fourteenth amendments (Furman v. Georgia, 1972). The eight amendment states that ‘excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment in... ... middle

...ministration of Justice. Report and Recommendations on the Administration of the Death Penalty in California. 2008. Web. 2 Mar 2011. . Coursey, Ethan. “Death Penalty Survey.” Survey. 22 Feb 2011. Marshall, Thurgood. United States. Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153. , 1976. Web. 1 Mar 2011. . Radelet, Michael L., and Ronald L. Akers. "Deterrence And The Death Penalty: the Views Of The Experts[*]." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 87.1 (1996): 1. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web

method. This persisted until the 1900s when the government switched to methods such as the gas chamber or electric chair. This continued until the 1972 case of Furman v. Georgia where the Court declared a halt in the death penalty until a proper system could be created. This halt continued until the 1976 Supreme court case Gregg v. Georgia which allowed states to start administering the punishment (Upfront Magazine). By this time, the lethal injection had been invented by Dr. Jay Chapman (CNN). It would

the LDF succeeded in blocking all executions for five years, creating a "death-row logjam." In Furman v Georgia in 1972, the Court invalidated all then-existing death penalty laws based on the inherent arbitrariness of their application. Most observers at the time concluded that there would never again be an execution in the United States. They were wrong. In 1976, in Gregg v. Georgia, the Court upheld Georgia's new capital-sentencing procedures, concluding that they had sufficiently reduced