The 1976 Gregg ruling made bifurcated capital trials universal across death-penalty states

Evidence

These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual. For, of all the people convicted of rapes and murders in 1967 and 1968, many just as reprehensible as these, the petitioners are among a capriciously selected random handful upon whom the sentence of death has in fact been imposed. [The Constitution] cannot tolerate the infliction of a sentence of death under legal systems that permit this unique penalty to be so wantonly and so freakishly imposed.’ — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2002 (#pays-off, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Capital punishment was struck down because juries imposed it arbitrarily and freakishly. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2002