4. The disjointed conclusion of Furman v. Georgia resulted in the death penalty becoming inapplicable in the United States for three years
Convicted of murder and sentenced to death following his killing of a resident during an aborted burglary, William Henry Furman appealed the verdict to the United States Supreme Court. Ruling 5-4, with each member of the majority writing their own separate opinions, the Supreme Court took the unprecedented step of ruling the imposition of the death penalty in his case, along with many others, constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Reasoning the uneven use of the death penalty in cases of rape and murder to be unjust and unacceptably variable, the court found an apparent arbitrariness in the application of capital sentences strongly indicating a racial bias against black defendants.
Striking down all death penalty schemes in the United States, the Supreme Court ruled that for these punishments to be reinstated each state had to address the aforementioned arbitrary and discriminatory standards to sufficiently satisfy the requirements of the Eighth Amendment. Converting all pending death sentences to life imprisonment, at the time it was believed to be the end of capital punishment in the United States. Ending the nationwide moratorium on capital punishment three years later, however, after thirty-seven states enacted new legislation, the Supreme Court subsequently ruled in Gregg. v. Georgia the required this standard had been met in the case of Troy Leon Gregg.