![]() Georgia, the Supreme Court invalidated hundreds of death sentences, declaring that then existing state laws were applied in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner and, thus, violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantees of equal protection of the laws and due process. ![]() By 1967, capital punishment had virtually halted in the United States, pending the outcome of several court challenges. However, public outrage and legal challenges caused the practice to wane. By the 1930s, as many as 150 people were executed each year. More than 14,000 people have been legally executed since colonial times, most of them in the early 20th Century. Since our nation's founding, the government - colonial, federal, and state - has punished a varying percentage of arbitrarily-selected murders with the ultimate sanction: death. Download a PDF version of Death Penalty Questions and Answers >
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