Furman v. Georgia: Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Synopsis:
In the summer of 1967, William Henry Furman broke into a house in Savannah, Georgia. He carried a pistol that night in case he ran into trouble, but his plan was simply to rob the house as quickly and quietly as possible without running into anyone. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. There are different accounts of what happened next, but one thing is known for sure -- before Furman fled the house, his gun went off and killed a man. William Furman was convicted of murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair. This chain of events provides the background for the Supreme Court’s landmark death penalty ruling in Furman v. Georgia, one of the most controversial cases ever to hit the nation’s highest court.
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Original Publish Date:
June 1, 2007
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