Waubonsee Community College

Capital punishment on trial, Furman v. Georgia and the death penalty in modern America, David M. Oshinsky

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 131-135) and index

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

index present

non fiction

Capital punishment on trial

bibliography

466346906

David M. Oshinsky

Landmark law cases & American society

Furman v. Georgia and the death penalty in modern America

"William Furman, an African-American and career criminal, shot and killed a white homeowner during a 1967 burglary in Savannah, Georgia. In short order he was arrested, put on trial, convicted by a nearly all-white jury, and sentenced to death. Furman's attorney, aided by the NAACP, doggedly appealed the verdict all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which voided Furman's sentence in a highly contentious 5-4 vote. That decision overturned Georgia's capital punishment statute, and by implication all other state death penalty laws, for violating the Eighth amendment's prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment." Furman, thus, effectively halted capital punishment in the United States. But the reprieve was only temporary, for the decision did not rule the death penalty per se to be unconstitutional; rather it struck down the laws that currently governed its application, leaving the states free to devise new ones that the Court might find acceptable. And that is exactly what happened. Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Oshinsky's compact and insightful study of the case showcases his talent for clarifying the complex and often confusing legal issues that surround a subject as controversial as capital punishment."--Back cover

"I didn't intend to kill nobody" -- "I am n-n-not dying" -- "Struck by lightning" -- "Death is different" -- "Let's do it" -- The "mirror test" -- "The machinery of death."