Coker v. Georgia - On Appeal

Coker appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court, which upheld both his conviction and his sentence of death by electrocution. He then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed to examine just one question raised by the case: whether "the punishment of death for rape violates the Eighth Amendment, which proscribes `cruel and unusual punishments' and which must be observed by the states as well as the federal government."

On 28 March 1977, Coker's attorney argued that the death penalty was too severe a punishment for rape and therefore violated the Eighth Amendment. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and others filed an amici curiae, or friend of the court, brief on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations.

Assistant Attorney General Grindle argued that the death penalty was a punishment commensurate with the crime of rape in certain irritant circumstances and that the Constitution permitted it.