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Capital Punishment And The Bifurcated Trial System, Alexandra Michalak
Capital Punishment And The Bifurcated Trial System, Alexandra Michalak
Grawemeyer Colloquium Papers
Capital punishment is a long-debated issue in United States public policy, with arguments ranging from complete abolition of the penalty to continuing the punishment in states that wish to do so. Regardless of evolving public opinion, numerous landmark Supreme Court cases have ruled capital punishment as constitutional under the Eighth Amendment, which outlaws cruel and unusual punishment. In Furman v. Georgia (1972), the court ruled in a 5-4 decision that certain applications of the death penalty were unconstitutional, vacating the current processes of capital punishment. After this decision, Georgia then adopted the bifurcated trial system to attempt to practice capital …