Death Row Inmates

Who Can Receive a Death Sentence?

The most important U.S. Supreme Court case concerning the use of the death penalty is Furman v. Georgia (1972). Prior to the Supreme Court's decision in Furman, individuals could be sentenced to death for a variety of offenses, including theft, rape, and murder. More important, juries and judges had wide discretion and little or no clear statutory guidance in deciding who would be sentenced to death. In Furman, the Supreme Court ruled that the arbitrary and capricious application of the death penalty violated the U.S. Constitution. Because all those who had been sentenced to death before 1972 had their constitutional rights violated, their death sentences were commuted to life sentences. It is important to note that the Supreme Court did not rule that the death penalty itself was a violation of the Eighth Amendment, but rather that the way it was being implemented was unconstitutional.

Following the Furman decision, many states revised their statutes to give clear guidance on when and how the death sentence could be imposed. The revised death penalty statute of the state of Georgia was challenged in the 1976 case of Gregg v. Georgia. The Supreme Court decided that Georgia's revised capital sentencing statute was constitutional. In two other Supreme Court decisions, Woodson v. North Carolina (1976) and Coker v. Georgia (1977), statutes calling for mandatory death sentences (because they did not allow judges and juries to hear mitigating evidence), and the death sentence for rape were held to be unconstitutional. All states that allow the death sentence provide for its use for murder; however, eleven states also allow the death penalty for other crimes, including treason, train wrecking, perjury causing execution, drug trafficking, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated rape of a victim under age twelve, and aircraft piracy. Federal statutes that authorize the use of the death penalty all involve the murder or death of the victim, except for the mailing of injurious articles with intent to kill, espionage, and treason.

Nearly all those who receive the death sentence in the United States are convicted of the crime of capital murder. Each state that allows the death sentence must define by statute those situations or aggravating factors that transform an “ordinary” murder into a capital murder. Examples of aggravating factors are the age of the victim (very young or very old), whether the killer was committing another crime when the murder occurred (usually rape, kidnapping, arson, robbery, or burglary), the occupation or status of the victim (police officer, firefighter, correctional officer, trial witness, judge, or jury member), or facts that made the murder particularly brutal (e.g., the use of torture). Other aggravating factors focus on the status of murderer (e.g., an inmate escaping from prison, or a person with a previous murder conviction).

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