Typically, federal capital sentencing process in the post-furman era involves four critical steps which include:
STEP 1: Sentencing
STEP 2: Direct Review
STEP 3: State Collateral Review
STEP 4: Federal Habeas Corpus
In many instances, the constitutionality of the death penalty has been challenged. Most of these constitutional challenges have included issues of race discrimination in the application of the death penalty.
Therefore, the process has not resolved the issue of racial disparities in death penalty sentencing on the federal level.
