Gregg v georgia significance. Four years later in gregg v. A jury imposed the death sentence on gregg defendant after finding him guilty on charges of armed robbery and murder. On appeal the georgia supreme court affirmed the death sentence except as to its imposition for the robbery conviction.
Georgia is not that it simply established the legality of capital punishment but it resulted in a statutory guide system to follow that effectively allows for deciding death as a suitable punishment for a crime and for that decision to be reviewed and deliberated. In response to the decision many states changed their death penalty systems. In 1972 in furman v.
Georgia 1976 reached the court. 153 1976 reaffirmed the united states supreme courts acceptance of the use of the death penalty in the united states upholding in particular the death sentence imposed on troy leon greggreferred to by a leading scholar as the july 2 cases and elsewhere referred to by the. Facts of the case a jury found gregg guilty of armed robbery and murder and sentenced him to death.
Synopsis of rule of law. The most dynamic significance behind gregg v. He asked the court to go further than it had in the furman case and rule the death penalty itself unconstitutional.
In 1972 the supreme court ruled that the death penalty systems then in place were unconstitutional violations of the eighth amendments prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments. Over the next few years a change in justices as well as the imposition of certain procedures to prevent arbitrariness and prejudice in state trials of capital crimes resulted in a changed attitude towards capital punishment. In gregg v georgia 1976 the us supreme court overturned its previous decision in furman v arizona 1972 that the death penalty was unconstitutional.
Georgia case is historically and legally significant because it upheld the legality of the death penalty. Troy gregg had been found guilty of murder and armed robbery and sentenced to death. Georgia as a landmark case expanded its prior decision in furman where the court held the death penalty was unconstitutional.