Gregg v. Georgia
Supreme Court
428 U.S. 153 (1976)
Gregg (defendant) was convicted of armed robbery and murder, and the same jury imposed a death sentence at a separate penalty hearing; the Georgia Supreme Court set aside the death sentence for armed robbery as rarely used for that crime but upheld it for murder, applying Georgia's revised capital sentencing law requiring the jury to find at least one of ten statutory aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt while also considering other aggravating and mitigating factors, a scheme enacted after Furman v. Georgia struck down capital sentencing schemes lacking adequate guidance for juries.
Whether the death penalty constitutes a per se violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments' prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, and whether Georgia's revised capital sentencing scheme adequately guides jury discretion to avoid arbitrary imposition.