For many years, capital punishment has been the focus of heated and often bitter debate within the legal community. Inevitably, the Supreme Court of the United States has been at the core of the controversy. In the early 1960s, NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys arguing before the Supreme Court secured stays on the use of the death penalty in all states, which the court overturned in favor of execution in 1971. The next year, however, in Furman v. Georgia, the court reduced the use of the death penalty by abolishing Georgia laws that gave complete discretion to a sentencing judge or jury in deciding whether or not to execute prisoners. In 1976, Gregg v. Georgia was submitted to the Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of capital punishment. …
