Final answer:
The US Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia ruled that the inconsistent application of the death penalty was unconstitutional, leading to a nationwide moratorium until the Gregg v. Georgia decision.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Critical Essence of Furman v. Georgia
The critical essence of the US Supreme Court ruling in Furman v. Georgia (1972) was that it declared the arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty to be a violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, which protect against cruel and unusual punishment. This landmark decision led to a de facto nationwide moratorium on executions that lasted until the Court's subsequent decision in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), which evaluated new death penalty statutes and ended the moratorium by upholding Georgia's revised death penalty statute as constitutional because it narrowed the eligibility for the death penalty.