¶ … Supreme Court established in analyzing the constitutionality of punishment? List and discuss at least three of them.
The only specific mention of definition of legally administrable punishment in the U.S. Constitution is that the punishment not be cruel and unusual, a vague semantic term that has proved fertile ground for both opponents and proponents of the death penalty. Capital punishment, however, was declared unconstitutional in Furman v. Georgia (1972). This was not because it meted out death to a defendant. Rather, it was the grounds that it was administered in a cruel and unusual fashion. Thus it was in violation of the
Constitution. Also, Georgia's capital punishment laws were meted out in an unclearly defined fashion that was overly subjective, and according to sociological data submitted to the court, seemed to unfairly penalize African-Americans. It was also thus in violation of the equal protection clause and violated defendant's civil rights. This decision, after Georgia further clarified its statutes and after the court changed in its ideological composition, was later overturned in Gregg v. Georgia (1976). Still, even today the court requires that a punishment not be cruel, unusual, and that according to the equal protection clause, must be equitably enforced.
Source
Supreme Court, United States: History." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. © 1994, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 on Infoplease.
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