"2022 marked the 50th anniversary of Furman v. Georgia, a 1972 landmark Supreme Court decision that declared the death penalty unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. The ruling effectively nullified all existing death sentences and halted all executions for a four-year period.
In "Cases in Brief: Furman v. Georgia with Carol Steiker," Harvard Law Professor Carol Steiker, an expert on the death penalty, details the compelling back story leading up to the Furman decision. One of Harvard Law School leadership's major goals is to highlight the school's accomplished faculty and share their expertise with different audiences within and outside the HLS community. We created this video—part of the Cases in Brief series—to help make a complicated legal topic accessible and engaging to a broad audience while fostering a sense of having an intimate audience with an HLS professor.
The result is a video that feels like a private law class. Steiker, who teaches Furman v. Georgia in her law school classes, breaks down the case in a manner that is fascinating and easy to understand, while at the same time packed with details that a lawyer or student would find valuable. The video was created by interviewing Steiker on camera and adding in images, video clips, animations, and music.
"Cases in Brief: Furman v. Georgia with Carol Steiker" has remained one of the top 15 stories on the Harvard Law homepage since it was released in mid-August 2022. It is fast becoming a go-to resource on a frequently searched topic."
From the Judges
They did a successful job of taking a complicated legal topic and making it accessible and engaging for a broader audience. A good use of mixed media and storytelling on a limited budget.
