[83][84] After the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Georgia's death penalty statute in Furman v. Georgia (1972), Carter signed a revised death-penalty statute that addressed the court's objections, thus re-introducing the practice in the state. Carter later regretted endorsing the death penalty, saying, "I didn't see the injustice of it as I do now."[85]
Ineligible to run for re-election, Carter looked toward a potential presidential run and engaged himself in national politics. He was named to several southern planning commissions and was a delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention, where liberal United States senator George McGovern was the likely presidential nominee. Carter tried to ingratiate himself with the conservative and anti-McGovern voters. He was fairly obscure at the time, and his attempt at triangulation failed; the 1972 Democratic ticket was McGovern and senator Thomas Eagleton.[86][note 2] On August 3, Carter met with Wallace in Birmingham, Alabama to discuss preventing the Democrats from losing in a landslide during the November elections,[88] but the presidential ticket ended up losing.[89]
Carter would meet regularly with his fledgling campaign staff, and he decided to begin putting a presidential bid for 1976 together. 