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'''''Gregg v. Georgia''''' {{ussc|428|153|[[1976]]}} was a [[landmark case|landmark]] [[U.S. Supreme Court]] decision which lifted the de facto [[moratorium]] on [[capital punishment in the United States]] that had resulted from the decision in ''[[Furman v. Georgia]]'' ([[1972]]). The court upheld the constitutionality of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]'s death penalty laws, which required that juries in capital cases consider all relevant aggravating and mitigating circumstances of a crime in determining whether to impose a death sentence. The general sentiment was that the statutes at issue in Furman were unconstitutional not because the death penalty is [[cruel and unusual punishment|cruel and unusual]], but because the system by which it was being applied at the time was not "[[arbitrary]] and [[capricious]]." Because the new statutes required the finding of one of several, listed, aggrivating circomstances, sentencing was addressed in a [[bifurcated procedure]], and were automatically reviewed by the State Supreme Court (for [[excessive]] or [[unusual]] sentencing among other concerns), protections had been enacted to prevent such abuses.
The first execution after the ruling was of [[Utah]] murderer [[Gary Gilmore]] in [[1977]].
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