ath penalty clauses to accommodate the Furman decision. No one could think that courts are infallible on points of law, or believe that there are not many questions of law-including many life-and-death questions-the answer to which, even if a “correct” answer exists, is exceedingly elusive and hard to be sure of. Supreme Court Justices are the highest judicial beings in the country, and if there are cases decided by only one vote, even their judgement should be called into question. They cannot be absolutely positive about a ruling every time, it just is not possible. They are human and can make mistakes just like the rest of us. The narrow margin of one vote was enough to put doubts in the minds of many people. The political consequences of the Furman case were grave for anti capital punishment groups. The individual states simply went back to their legislatures and framed new laws that could support the decision made by the Justices in the Furman case. Consequently, only four years later, the Supreme Court found that the amended laws of Georgia were now compliant with the Eighth Amendment. This happened in another landmark case of the seventies. In Gregg v. Georgia, the convict Gregg appealed to the Supreme Court against his conviction and death penalty. The Court first held that “the punishment of death does not invariably violate the Constitution.” The Court went on to find that while some discretion still exists in the Georgia sentencing procedures, “the discretion to be exercised is controlled by clear and objective standards so as to produce non-discriminatory application.” Accordingly, it held that Georgia’s new statutory sentencing system did not violate the Constitution. Since then, the death penalty has again become a common practice in the United States. A recent study showed that between 1993 and 1997, the courts exonerated 21 death row prisoners. Previous reports showed that, on ...
