Background

The Supreme Court case of Troy Leon Gregg v. State of Georgia (Gregg v. Georgia) took place in 1976. The parties involved were the state of Georgia and convicted criminal Troy Leon Gregg who committed armed robbery and murder. Gregg was sentenced to capital punishment for the charge of murder, which he appealed on the grounds that his sentence was "cruel and unusual punishment" that violated the Eighth (protection against cruel and unusual punishment) and Fourteenth Amendments (equal protection under the law, no person can be denied life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness without due process).