In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in Furman v. Georgia) that arbitrary application of the death penalty violates the __________ to the Constitution, but that the death penalty itself is not unconstitutional. To be constitutional, the death penalty must be imposed for reasons other than the race/ethnicity, gender, and social class of the offender.

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The Supreme Court ruled that arbitrary application of the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. However, they did not declare the death penalty itself to be unconstitutional. Instead, they held that it must be imposed for reasons other than the offender's race/ethnicity, gender, and social class in order to be constitutional.