ABSTRACT
In Furman v. Georgia, the US Supreme Court held that Georgia's imposition of the death penalty violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution because it was administered in an arbitrary and capricious fashion. In overturning Furman's sentence, a five-four majority of the Supreme Court reached different conclusions regarding why the Georgia capital punishment law was unconstitutional. Justices Douglas, Stewart, and White ruled that the application of the Georgia death penalty statute violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment in that death was more likely to be imposed on the poor and African Americans than on others. The dissenters in the case drew upon a variety of arguments to uphold Furman's conviction and the Georgia death penalty statute. As a result of Furman v. Georgia, death penalty statutes across the United States were declared unconstitutional.
