Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 26, 2006 15:18:33 GMT -5
Man behind historic death penalty case back in jail
A man whose conviction in a 1967 shooting led to a landmark U.S. Supreme
Court decision is back behind bars in Macon.
Bond was denied Wednesday for William Henry Furman, a convicted killer who
gave his name to a 1972 Supreme Court decision that overturned death
sentences for more than 600 inmates nationwide.
Furman, 64, is well-known among death penalty lawyers, professors and
students because of the case, Furman v. Georgia.
His death sentence and hundreds of others were overturned on the grounds
that the death penalty in the United States up to that time was
arbitrarily imposed, said Stephen Bright, president of the Southern Center
for Human Rights and a death penalty expert. The decision required states
to create a system for imposing the death penalty.
Bright called it "the most significant case in death penalty law."
Furman admitted shooting to death a Savannah man in 1967 while
burglarizing his home. He was paroled in 1984.
Furman is less well-known as a resident of Macon. He was indicted in
August on a 2004 burglary charge. Wednesday, his bond was denied for a
felony bail-jumping charge related to a 2005 possession of burglary tools
arrest.
Prosecutors accuse Furman of breaking into an Adams Street home occupied
by a mother and her 10-year-old daughter in August 2004. The mother called
911 while Furman was in the house and spoke to operators as if she was
talking to a friend to conceal from Furman whom she was calling, said
James Daniels, an assistant Bibb County district attorney.
When police arrived, they arrested Furman and found a pair of the girl's
panties in his pocket, Daniels said.
"You hope that when people are given another chance they'll turn their
life around and realize 'I could have been put to death,' " Daniels said.
Daniels said prosecutors, including himself, didn't know at first that the
man arrested in that case was the defendant in the landmark case. He said
he discovered Furman's past when researching his background. Furman is
being held in the Bibb County jail.
Furman was released after his 2004 arrest on $5,000 bond and is accused of
burglarizing another home in 2005. He was rearrested in August for missing
a court date. Daniels said that Wednesday a judge did not set bond on the
bail-jumping charge.
Daniels, who began working for the district attorney's office in 2005,
said he was not familiar with how the case was handled until he arrived.
He said his research discovered that Furman had a few arrests for alcohol
and weapons violations since 1984.
In the 1972 ruling, U.S. Supreme Court justices found that the death
penalty was applied in an arbitrary way and violated the Eighth
Amendment's clause prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.
The decision caused to states rewrite their death penalty laws, Bright
said. States like Georgia now have specific requirements for applying the
death penalty.
Furman admitted in court that he tripped on a wire and accidentally fired
through a door, killing his victim in the 1967 burglary, said Anne
Emanuel, a law professor at Georgia State University.
She said she was surprised to hear that Furman had been arrested again.
"It seems like ancient history. You don't expect him to reappear," she
said.
(source: Macon Telegraph)
A man whose conviction in a 1967 shooting led to a landmark U.S. Supreme
Court decision is back behind bars in Macon.
Bond was denied Wednesday for William Henry Furman, a convicted killer who
gave his name to a 1972 Supreme Court decision that overturned death
sentences for more than 600 inmates nationwide.
Furman, 64, is well-known among death penalty lawyers, professors and
students because of the case, Furman v. Georgia.
His death sentence and hundreds of others were overturned on the grounds
that the death penalty in the United States up to that time was
arbitrarily imposed, said Stephen Bright, president of the Southern Center
for Human Rights and a death penalty expert. The decision required states
to create a system for imposing the death penalty.
Bright called it "the most significant case in death penalty law."
Furman admitted shooting to death a Savannah man in 1967 while
burglarizing his home. He was paroled in 1984.
Furman is less well-known as a resident of Macon. He was indicted in
August on a 2004 burglary charge. Wednesday, his bond was denied for a
felony bail-jumping charge related to a 2005 possession of burglary tools
arrest.
Prosecutors accuse Furman of breaking into an Adams Street home occupied
by a mother and her 10-year-old daughter in August 2004. The mother called
911 while Furman was in the house and spoke to operators as if she was
talking to a friend to conceal from Furman whom she was calling, said
James Daniels, an assistant Bibb County district attorney.
When police arrived, they arrested Furman and found a pair of the girl's
panties in his pocket, Daniels said.
"You hope that when people are given another chance they'll turn their
life around and realize 'I could have been put to death,' " Daniels said.
Daniels said prosecutors, including himself, didn't know at first that the
man arrested in that case was the defendant in the landmark case. He said
he discovered Furman's past when researching his background. Furman is
being held in the Bibb County jail.
Furman was released after his 2004 arrest on $5,000 bond and is accused of
burglarizing another home in 2005. He was rearrested in August for missing
a court date. Daniels said that Wednesday a judge did not set bond on the
bail-jumping charge.
Daniels, who began working for the district attorney's office in 2005,
said he was not familiar with how the case was handled until he arrived.
He said his research discovered that Furman had a few arrests for alcohol
and weapons violations since 1984.
In the 1972 ruling, U.S. Supreme Court justices found that the death
penalty was applied in an arbitrary way and violated the Eighth
Amendment's clause prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.
The decision caused to states rewrite their death penalty laws, Bright
said. States like Georgia now have specific requirements for applying the
death penalty.
Furman admitted in court that he tripped on a wire and accidentally fired
through a door, killing his victim in the 1967 burglary, said Anne
Emanuel, a law professor at Georgia State University.
She said she was surprised to hear that Furman had been arrested again.
"It seems like ancient history. You don't expect him to reappear," she
said.
(source: Macon Telegraph)