In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued a number of death penalty rulings. On July 2, 1976, a sharply divided Court issued five plurality decisions in the cases of Gregg v. Georgia and four companion cases. In these decisions, the Court chose to apply a piecemeal approach to the issue of capital punishment. It sustained the constitutionality of the death penalty per se, saying it was neither excessive nor in violation of the standards of decency; it established the requirements a statute must meet to avoid the deficiencies of the earlier policy stated in Furman v. Georgia; and it evaluated the statutes of Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas to determine if the statutes were constitutional. When these decisions are considered as a unit and as standards to guide State and lower courts in their efforts to construct constitutional statutes, the uncertainty and ambiguity of the Court's position is apparent. Within these plurality decisions, the Court indicated that it would perform an oversight function. As a result, the Court has, in subsequent decisions, reversed some State supreme court rulings, upheld others, and further clarified its position in the Gregg case. Thus, the Court's influence on the death penalty issue will continue on a case-by-case basis, and the uncertainty remaining as to its position will increase the options available to other decisionmakers. About 200 footnotes are provided.