The Eighth Amendment's “narrowing” requirement for capital punishment eligibility has challenged states since it was recognized in Furman v. Georgia in 1972. This article examines whether California's death penalty scheme complies with this requirement by empirically analyzing 27,453 California convictions for first‐degree murder, second‐degree murder, and voluntary manslaughter with offense dates between January 1978 and June 2002. Using a 1,900‐case sample, we examine whether California's death penalty statute fails to comply with the Eighth Amendment's narrowing test. Our findings support two conclusions. First, the death‐eligibility rate among California homicide cases is the highest in the nation during that period and in the ensuing decade. We find that 95 percent of all first‐degree murder convictions and 59 percent of all second‐degree murder and voluntary manslaughter convictions were death eligible under California's 2008 statute. Second, a death sentence is imposed in only a small fraction of the death‐eligible cases. The California death sentencing rate of 4.3 percent among all death‐eligible cases is among the lowest in the nation and over two‐thirds lower than the death‐sentencing rate in pre‐Furman Georgia.

中文翻译：

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福尔曼（Furman）享年45岁：加州未能（再次）缩小死亡资格的宪法挑战

第八修正案对死刑资格的“缩小”要求挑战了各州，因为它在《弗曼诉乔治亚州》案中得到承认在1972年。本文通过对1978年1月至2002年6月的一等谋杀，二等谋杀和自愿杀人罪的27,453次加利福尼亚定罪进行了经验分析，研究了加利福尼亚的死刑计划是否符合这一要求。使用1,900个案例样本中，我们检查了加利福尼亚的死刑法规是否不符合第八修正案的范围缩小测试。我们的发现支持两个结论。首先，在此期间和随后的十年中，加利福尼亚州凶杀案中的死亡合格率是全美最高的。我们发现，根据加利福尼亚州2008年的法规，所有一级谋杀定罪的95％和所有二级谋杀定罪和自愿杀人罪的59％符合死亡条件。第二，只有一小部分符合死亡条件的案件判处死刑。在所有符合死亡条件的案件中，加利福尼亚的死刑判决率是4.3％，是全美最低的，比之前的死刑判决率低三分之二。佐治亚州弗曼。