The court granted certiorari and found the circumstances surrounding the state were sufficient to support the claims of racial discrimination.

[1] On January 23, 1967, in a nine to zero unanimous decision, the Supreme Court stated that the case of Whitus v. Georgia should be reversed and the law in question, being the 14th Amendment concerning equal protections, should be upheld and seen as constitutional.

[2] From the opinion of Justice Clark, the decision was overturned because the circumstances surrounding the case supported the claims of the petitioners.

His petition included a claim that the Georgia capital sentencing process was administered in a racially discriminatory manner in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The study indicates that black defendants who killed white victims have the greatest likelihood of receiving the death penalty.

Our analysis begins with the basic principle that a defendant who alleges an equal protection violation has the burden of proving "the existence of purposeful discrimination."