William Henry Furman
FURMAN VS GEORGIA
In the year 1967, William Henry Furman, a 26 year old man was arrested under the charges of robbery and murder. He broke into the home of William Micke Jr. while him and his family were sleeping and attempted to steal from their home. When the family heard strange noises, Mr. Micke went down to investigate. When Furman saw Micke, he tried to flee the home, upon his exit, Furman shot and killed Micke. At the trial, Furman tried to convince the court that he had tripped over a wire and the gun fired, making the death of Micke an accident however, the jury was not convinced and sentenced him to the death penalty. Since Furman was poor, he had a low paid state lawyer to defend him. Before the trial, the courts sent Furman to Georgia State Hospital for a mental evaluation. The hospital deemed him mentally unstable and psychotic. However, the jury did not buy into his illness plea and again sentenced him to the death penalty. Later, after the case had caught the eye of the public, it was sent to the supreme court for another trial, this time with Furman being defended by a higher ranked lawyer. This time they fought against furmans sentence claiming that the death penalty violated the 8th amendments act against cruel and unusual punishment. After using studies taken on the randomness and prejudice decision making done by the jury, Furmans conviction was reversed.
AMENDMENT
The 8th amendment was questioned in this case testifying that the death penalty (which the defendant had been sentenced to) went against the 8th amendments act against cruel and unusual punishments. Studies that examined the motivation behind the votes of the jury proved that leaving the fate of someones life in the hands of a jury was unreliable. Most of the jurors decisions proved to be random or racist; most of the criminals sentenced to the death penalty were minorities, people with low income and the mentally ill whereas the well educated, white and rich criminals were just sentenced to time.
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BOTH SIDES
The court wanted to sentence Furman to the death penalty, however, Furman fought saying that a.) the death o Micke was an accident and the gun fired off when he had fallen. b.) he tried to plea mental illness and was proven to be psychotic. and c.) his rights by the 8th amendment had been violated by pursuing to sentence him to death.
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WHO WAS AFFECTED
The people who were most affected by this case are criminals, especially those sentenced to the death penalty, judges and juries. Also people who are victims of these criminals seeking justice.
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OVERVIEW
A colored man robbed a home and shot a man. He was sentenced to the death penalty and after much deliberation the case was sent to the supreme court for further investigations. Later, due to conflicting interest with the 8th amendments act against cruel and unusual punishments, his conviction was reversed.
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PERSONAL COMMENTARY
In my opinion, I think that the mental state of the defendant should have been reviewed more carefully ad taken into consideration a little more than it had been. I also feel that the death penalty isn't a very good capital punishment, making a criminal live out the rest of their life in prison for killing other seems more like a fit punishment to me.