Читать книгу The Handy Law Answer Book - David L Hudson - Страница 149

Decision: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5 to 4 that Georgia’s death penalty scheme violates the Eighth Amendment. Three justices in the majority attach the death penalty in general, while Justices Potter Stewart and Lewis Powell focus on the fact that the death penalty law does not give jurors sufficient guidance as to which capital defendants should receive the ultimate punishment. Stewart writes that “these death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual.” This ruling led to a halt on all executions in the country until 1977.