In the late hours of a summer night in Savannah, Georgia, the life of William Joseph Micke Jr., a 29-year-old white male, was abruptly ended. On August 11, 1967, Micke, a Coast Guard Petty Officer, was at home with his wife and five children. Around midnight, after the family had gone to bed, strange noises from the kitchen awakened them. Believing it might be one of his children, Micke went to investigate.
In his kitchen, he discovered an intruder, 26-year-old William Henry Furman, who had broken into the residence to commit a burglary. As Furman attempted to flee the scene, he shot Micke, inflicting a fatal wound to his chest. Micke's family quickly summoned the police, who arrived within minutes. A search of the neighborhood led to the discovery of Furman, who was found hiding and still in possession of the murder weapon. He was promptly arrested and charged with the murder of William Joseph Micke Jr.
Furman's trial took place on September 20, 1968, and lasted only a single day. Despite a pre-trial psychological evaluation that found him to be mentally deficient with psychotic episodes, the court denied his insanity plea. The jury returned a guilty verdict, and Furman was sentenced to death. However, this sentence would become the focal point of a legal battle with far-reaching consequences.
The case eventually escalated to the United States Supreme Court in what would become the landmark case, *Furman v. Georgia*. In 1972, the Court ruled that the death penalty, as it was then applied, constituted 'cruel and unusual punishment' and was therefore unconstitutional. This decision led to a de facto moratorium on capital punishment across the United States. As a result, Furman's death sentence was overturned. He was eventually paroled in April 1984. His freedom was not permanent, however, as he was later convicted of a separate burglary in 2004 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
