Given him a fair trial, then hang him: The supreme court's modern death penalty jurisprudence

In Furman v. Georgia (1972), the Supreme Court ruled the arbitrary and capricious nature of the death penalty rendered it an unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Then, in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), the Court held that Georgia's revised death penalty statute employing separate guilt and sentencing phases passed constitutional muster under Furman. With these cases in which some answers were provided but the door was opened to a host of other questions, the Court introduced the modern era of its death penalty jurisprudence. Since then, the Court has addressed whether crimes other than murder are subject to the death penalty, attempted to balance aggravating and mitigating circumstances, and considered whether the death penalty can be applied to minors and mentally deficient individuals. Further, the Court has addressed questions of race, claims of actual innocence, and whether judges or juries determine death sentences. These cases collectively illustrate th...