State v. Johnson

I

Biíowít, J.

The defendant contends that the penalty of death is cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional.

The United States Supreme Court, in Furman v. Georgia (decided June 29, 1972), 33 L. Ed. 2d 346, has held that the carrying out of a death penalty imposed at the discretion of the trier of the facts constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

TJnder that holding, which we are required to follow, the infiction of the death penalty under the existing law of Ohio is now unconstitutional…