Godfrey v. Georgia

After his wife left him following repeated arguments and told him reconciliation was impossible, Godfrey (defendant) shot and killed his wife and her mother, then immediately called the sheriff and confessed; he was convicted of two counts of murder after an unsuccessful insanity defense, and at sentencing the jury was instructed on Georgia's aggravating-circumstance statute allowing a death sentence where the murder was "outrageous or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman," resulting in a death sentence the Georgia Supreme Court upheld as adequately supported by the evidence and not arbitrary.