Opening Argument - The Death Penalty: Slowly Fading?

by Stuart Taylor Jr

Sat. Nov. 17, 2007


When the Supreme Court voided all federal death-penalty laws in June 1972 -- despite the Constitution's clear intent to allow capital punishment -- three justices explained that these laws had become "cruel and unusual punishment" because they violated "the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society."

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