This decision was reached not because it was believed that the death penalty was basically cruel and unusual but because, as Justice Stewart put it, the "death penalty as applied was unconstitutionally arbitrary" (Berger 353). ... According to Amnesty International, the "death penalty is a lethal lottery: just one out of every one hundred people arrested for murder is actually executed" (Death Penalty Focus). ... Edward Koch, the former mayor of New York from 1978 to 1989 and avid death penalty supporter, states that the discriminatory manner of the death penalty "no longer seems to be the...

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• Approx Pages: 9
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• Grade Level: Graduate