mandatory. 36 Gregg v. Georgia is just as important as the Furman trial even though reversal in judgment for it ruled that the death penalty did not violate the 8th Amendment. 37 Jurek v.Texas and Proffit v. Florida; if it is imposed without providing courts with adequate guidance to make the right decision in the severity of the sentence, or if it is imposed for a crime that does not take or threaten the life of another human being. The death penalty was also confined to crimes of murder, including felony murder. A felony murder is any homicide committed in the course of committing another felony, such as rape or robbery. 38 After the 1972 court ruling that all but a few capital statutes were unconstitutional, thirty-seven states revised and reenacted their death penalty laws. In Furman v. Georgia in 1972, the Supreme Court reversed all existing capital statutes and death sentences. The modern death-sentencing era began the next year with the implementation of new capital statutes designed to satisfy Furman. Unfortunately, no central repository of detailed information on post-Furman death sentences exists. 39 Since post-Furman executions began in earnest in 1984, the nation has executed an average of about 1.3% of its death row inmates each year; in no year has it ever carried out more than 2.6 percent or 1 in 39 of those on death row. 40 It would seem that the U.S. judiciary system has provided for the effective protection of the rights of individuals that face the death sentence. Persons under the age of eighteen, pregnant women, new mothers or persons who have become insane cannot be sentenced to death. Proponents argue almost all human activities, ranging trucking to construction, costs the lives of some innocent bystanders. These activities cannot be simply abandoned, because the advantages outweigh the losses. Capital punishment saves lives as well as takes them. We must accept the few risks of wrongful deaths for the sake of ...
