In Furman v. Georgia (1972) 408 U.S. 238, the Supreme Court had held unconstitutional the death penalty provisions before it on the ground that they constituted "'cruel and unusual'" punishments under the Eighth Amendment, applicable to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment. ( Id., at p. 257.) The death penalties were considered cruel and unusual by the Furman court because the discretion conferred was "standardless." The problem was not remedied by the mandatory statutes but "simply papered over."