Baryshev E.O. The case of «Furman v. Georgia» and its influence on the advancement of the institution of the death penalty in the USA.

Abstract: The subject of this research is a review of the legal aspects of cases of «Furman v. Georgia», «Gregg v. Georgia» and other significant cases having influenced the development of the institution of the death penalty in the United States of America in the second half of the XX century. The author elaborates the history of the case of «Furman v. Georgia», discusses social and legal prerequisites for the imposition of a moratorium on the death penalty in 1972 and its abolition in 1976. A special attention is paid to the analysis of positions of judges of the Supreme Court of the United States and post-Furman trends. The main methods of the research are formal-legal and comparative-legal. The work is based on the analysis of the key cases of the Supreme Court of the United States. Significant emphasis is given to consideration of the evolution of the issue by using the historical method. The main conclusions of the research are the following: 1) the introduction of a temporary moratorium on the death penalty in the USA was a necessary stage in the legal evolution; 2) the pause was necessary for the reforming of criminal procedure legislation, solving urgent socio-legal problems connected with the death penalty. The novelty of this research consists of the fact that previously in Russian literature the issue of imposition and subsequent abolition of the moratorium on the death penalty in the United States has not been studied comprehensively. The author concludes that it is unlikely that in the future the question of the constitutionality of the death penalty in the US will come under the question, as there is a trend of improvement of legal procedure was set in the second half of the XXth century.

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