Whether administered by federal or state government, the death penalty is infected with fundamental flaws, including persistent racial discrimination, and human error. Currently, 27 states, the federal government, and the U.S. Military still have the death penalty. There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime. Since 1973, at least 189 people wrongly convicted and sentenced to death have been exonerated. 100 of the death row exonerees are Black.
Racism is inextricable from capital punishment. The death penalty has its roots in slavery, lynchings, white vigilantism, and the racial inequities in sentencing persist to this day.
In the landmark 1972 case Furman v. Georgia, LDF secured the country’s first and only nationwide halt to executions. In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in LDF’s favor and found the death penalty as then administered constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
LDF identified the the persistent racial discrimination in the administration of the death penalty and successfully, argued that the death penalty was arbitrarily and disproportionately imposed on Black Americans and other marginalized groups.
The Court ruled that Georgia’s death penalty statute that gave juries complete discretion over sentencing could result in arbitrary application of the death penalty. The decision resulted in the commutation of the sentences 629 individuals on death row. In holding that the death penalty violated the “cruel and unusual punishment” clause of the Eighth Amendment, the Court’s decision forced states to rethink their laws going forward to ensure that the death penalty would not be administered in a discriminatory manner.
Unfortunately, this decision proved to be only temporary as Gregg v. Georgia (1976) reinstated its acceptance and use. Read our statement on the 50th anniversary of Furman v. Georgia.