Which case held that Georgia's methods of administering the death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment, effectively ending executions in the United States for more than a decade?

• A. Gregg v. Georgia (1976)
• B. Coker v. Georgia (1977)
• C. Chandler v. Miller (1997)
• D. Furman v. Georgia (1972)

Answer: (D)

The central issue is how the Eighth Amendment applies to the administration of the death penalty and the danger of arbitrary enforcement. In Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court found that the death penalty, as it was being administered in Georgia at that time, was applied in a manner that left too much discretion to juries and judges and did so in a way that produced an unpredictable, biased, and inconsistent result. That lack of uniform standards meant the punishment could be cruel and unusual in practice, not just in theory. Because of this, the ruling effectively halted executions nationwide while states redesigned their death-penalty laws to include safeguards like narrowed, consistent criteria and appellate review. The pause persisted for years as courts and legislatures reworked statutes, and it wasn’t until the 1976 Gregg v. Georgia decision that executions were allowed to resume under a new, more fixed framework. The other cases involve different issues—Gregg later permits executions under stricter procedures, Coker limits death for rape, and Chandler deals with unrelated Georgia law—so they don’t fit the scenario described.