In Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a vote of
5-4 that capital punishment, as it is currently employed on the
state and federal level, is unconstitutional. The majority held that,
in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, the
death penalty qualified as “cruel and unusual punishment,”
primarily because states employed execution in “arbitrary and
capricious ways,” especially in regard to race. It was the first
time that the nation’s highest court had ruled against capital
punishment. However, because the Supreme Court suggested
new legislation that could make death sentences constitutional
again, such as the development of standardized guidelines for
juries that decide sentences, it was not an outright victory for
opponents of the death penalty.