...Title: Roper V. Simmons Facts of the case: The respondent Simmons, at the age of 17, already had planned and committed a capital murder. When Simmons had already turned 18, he was sentenced to death. Although, when the court had already decided to execute Simmons, the court then held because due to the Eighth Amendment, through the Fourteenth Amendment, it is prohibited to execute a mentally retarded person. The Eighth Amendment says that excessive bail is not required, nor excessive fines imposed, and cruel or unusual punishments inflicted. Simmons decided to field a new petition for state postconviction relief, arguing that due to the Atkins’ reasoning that was established in the constitution do not approves the execution of a juvenile who...
Words: 375 - Pages: 2
...Roper v. Simmons | March 4 2013 | Criminal Justice 245 | Mr. Cashdollar | Roper v. Simmons I. Introduction This paper will address the Roper v. Simmons 543 U.S551 (2005); it will specifically address the arrest, trial and the legal issues that arose. It will explain and identify the holdings of the lower courts and it will explain and identify the decision of the U.S Supreme Court. II. The Facts Christopher Simmons, who was seventeen years old, and two of his friends by the name of Charles Benjamin(fifteen years old) and John Tessmer (sixteen years old) had a detailed conversation about committing a murder. Christopher Simmons had a premeditated plan to which included, burglary (breaking and entering), robber and murder. Simmons wanted to bond and tie the victim and discard them off the bridge. Simmons convinced his two friends that they would not be convicted for these acts because they are still considered juveniles (under the age of eighteen). On September 9th at approximately 2 a.m. met up with each other to carry out Simmons plan to murder the victim. Tessmer, left the group after changing his mind, shortly after they met up. Simmons and Benjamin still decided to carry out the plan; they broke into the victim’s home by reaching through an open window and unlocking the back door. While they were in the Simmons turned on the hall light which woke up the owner. Shirley Crook asked “Who’s there?” Simmons followed the voice and went to her bedroom. Upon...
Words: 1351 - Pages: 6
...A study in California found that those who killed whites were over 3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed blacks. (Pierce & Radelet, Santa Clara Law Review, 2005). For over one hundred years there have been adamant efforts to abolish capital punishment in America. (Davis, 1957) The death penalty has been a constant controversy amongst American citizens. There are many standpoints to be taken on the dispute. Supporters of the death penalty plead that it can be justified with sufficient due process, while others contradict that a human’s life is irreplaceable and that every person has the right to live. In order to gain a deeper understanding and a better idea of the death penalty and its development into modern day society, it is crucial to examine the historical lawsuits that have been decided in favor or against the capital punishment in America. In 1987 a monumental lawsuit hit the Supreme Court. McCleskey vs. Kemp 481 U.S. 279, (1987), ruling that McCleskey was to be sentenced to death for an armed robbery that resulted in the murder of a police officer. Appealing for his life, McCleskey argued that studies proved that racial discrimination lived with in capital punishment rulings. He heavily relied on a study conducted by Professor David C. Baldus also known as “Baldus Study”. His study concluded that black defendants were more likely to be punished with capital punishment than white defendants, especially if the victim was white. McCleskey...
Words: 894 - Pages: 4
...Christopher Pittman’s Adult Trial Verdict Name Professor Institution Date Just to quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. words, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. Human beings are not entirely fit. Thus judges just like any other human being are bound to make mistakes in dispensing justice. However, Judges are obliged to be ever watchful and mindful in their endeavors of delivering justice. Every day, all over US judges dispense justice to convicted persons and defendants. However, absolute justice ideally is hardly realizable across board since its effectiveness demands human infallibility. Although it might be even harder to reap justice, justice is achievable and pursuit for justice remains a noble order. In this case, a 12 years old boy, Christopher Pittman from the state of South Carolina on February 15, 2005 shot his two grandparents using his father’s shotgun while they lay on their beds, he then set the house on fire, drove his grandparents truck and fled with cash and weapons in his possession. The petitioner, Pittman was only 12 years of age when he committed this malicious acts. He was charged with premeditated murder and put on an adult court for trial. Christopher Pittman’s defense team claimed that young Christopher Pittman remained an innocent child because he still could not differentiate what was right or wrong while under influence of Zoloft, an antidepressant. The defense urged the court to consider Pitman a child thus unable to plan...
Words: 1829 - Pages: 8
...Asharin 1 Asharin, Justin 4/12/10 Gardner Philosophy Why Capital Punishment Works: Concepts of An Ideal Model Throughout the history of capital punishment, there have always been many criticisms of the penalty questioning everything from racial motivations to give the penalty, to why or why not juveniles should be exempt from the penalty, to the economic efficiency of it. Economically, many believe that the death penalty is a too long and drawn out process, and that giving life in prison is a more efficient process, and saves tax-payer money. In terms of discrimination, there has always been a subliminal sense against certain groups; with those being minorities and juveniles. The death penalty is supposed to only be given as a punishment based on the nature of a crime. However, certain statutes such as the minimum age law for the death penalty attempt to prevent true justice. If a juvenile is deemed competent, and their crime is heinous enough to incur the death penalty, then there is no reason as to why they should not be given it. As for minorities, there have always been questions as to why the majority of inmates on death row are African American. Although racism seems to be the easy answer, it is clear that the true reason is because many African Americans live in higher poverty areas were crime is rampant, thus making them more susceptible to committing heinous crimes. The death penalty should defend certain peoples, and should be used more often against...
Words: 3232 - Pages: 13
...offenders as shown by various research studies. The process of maintaining public safety, successful integration of young offenders to the community, rehabilitation, skill development and treatment are the main goals of the juvenile system. As suggested by Howell, (2003), justice can never be served by forcing juveniles through a system never intended to process teenagers, moreover transfer laws have worsened the implications they intend to address. Juvenile justice system was essentially established because many teenagers were subjected to awful violations in adult jails and prisons hence resulting to the society as more hardened criminals. Placing young offenders in adult prisons heightens criminal behaviors after release according to the findings. There is well founded fear that several number of young offenders slated to be placed in adult jails are more likely to be assaulted ,commit suicide and raped. Juveniles are driven to desperation and abused regularly in adult prisons because they are not specific measures to protect the young offenders from the adult prisoners. My completes work Case summary Issue Roper v. Simmons’ main issue is whether the application of Death penalty on a person who committed murder at age 17 amounts to “Cruel and Unusual” sentence and thereby barred by the 8th and 14th Amendments (Dinkes, et al 2009) Facts The Supreme Court of the United States initiated a review of the case against Christopher Simmons to determine whether death penalty was...
Words: 887 - Pages: 4
...pm, Stanley “Tookie” Williams, the co-founder of the lethal street gang, “the crips”, was executed by lethal injection in California. (The twelfth person to be executed in the state since the 1977 re-instatement of the death penalty, his death sparked more controversy than one would expect, especially in defense of a convicted ruthless murderer of the innocent. Before his execution Williams’s defense team brought an appeal to the Governor, asking that his sentence of death be repealed on the account that he has experienced a reformation of spirit. Normally this defense is looked at with suspicion, and often used when the convicted has found god or other spiritual path that would prevent their previous behaviors to reappear. In Williams’s case, there was much more solid evidence that his mind and soul had grown from his time in jail, he was nominated for five Nobel Peace Prizes in Literature and Peace. His appeal to have his death sentence overturned was inevitably denied, and he was executed, only to leave behind a legacy of children’s books about the dangers of gangs and the negative affects of weapons on communities. Reformation is, in my opinion, the most powerful part of the human spirit. It comes with age and experience, and when crimes are committed through poor decision making, and /or influence on or from a group of others (which could be applied to Williams’ gang crimes), reformation and religious redemption should be taken into consideration if a review is requested...
Words: 1492 - Pages: 6
... which are relatively isolated from foreign influence, consider “civilized standards” and “views that have been expressed by other nations” to support their decisions. Even though the search for solutions to domestic problems beyond national borders is still a novelty for the US judiciary, increasing communications between international and domestic law and the ongoing globalization of the latter require lawyers around the world to study foreign judicial practice and consider it when resolving domestic legal disputes. In recent years, several Supreme Court Justices of the U.S have looked to the decisions of foreign and international courts for guidance in interpreting the U.S. Constitution. This practice...
Words: 1314 - Pages: 6
...negative behaviors in the legal system. Capital Punishment 4 Capital Punishment over the years has always been one of the most controversial topics that stay in communication with our legal system. In committing murder as a child, it is hard not to become judgmental in thinking that a child knows right from wrong. When thinking of a teenage child committing murder at times you may think do they really realize what they have just done and do they even know the consequences. My position is juveniles who commit the act of murder should not have to suffer the resolution of capital punishment because they are still children and their brains are not fully developed as an adult. In most cases it is a known fact that children do not make rational decisions in most case they think irrational. To send a child to a confined environment to take time to think about their actions I feel is more reasonable than to take the life another this should not be about (an eye for eye). There are many more reasonable options such as rehabilitation,...
Words: 2367 - Pages: 10
...(Latin caput). Hence, a capital crime was originally one punished by the severing of the head.” Execution of criminals and political opponents has been used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime and to suppress political dissent. In most places that practice capital punishment it is reserved for murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries sexual crimes, such as rape, adultery, incest and sodomy, carry the death penalty. What does the death penalty do? Is it effective? Is it worth the cost? In United States, Michigan was the first state to ban the death penalty, on May 18, 1846. The death penalty was declared unconstitutional between 1972-1976 based on the Furman v. Georgia case, but the 1976 Gregg v. Georgia case once again permitted the death penalty under certain circumstances. Currently thirty five states plus the US military and Government's permit the death penalty, while fifteen states and the District of Columbia do not. Of the states where the death penalty is permitted, California has the largest number of inmates on death row, while Texas has been the most active in carrying out executions by executing an estimated 1/3 of all executions . There have been a total of one thousand one hundred and seventy-eight executions with 3297 inmates currently on death row waiting for execution. With no executions in 1976 and a spike of 98 in 1999 it has dropped...
Words: 1217 - Pages: 5
...The Fluid Landscape of Legal Systems Question 2 Roger Cotterrell has written the following: “What all of these indications add up to is the recognition that neither legal systems nor societies can be thought of as unified and integrated in the way that western thought has often assumed. A comparative legal perspective is no more than the systematic recognition that law is always fluid, pluralistic, contested and subject to often contradictory pressures from both inside and outside its jurisdiction; that it reflects an always unstable diversity of traditions, interests, allegiances, and ultimate values and beliefs. If the comparative perspective on law was once a view of the exotic ‘legal other’ or of the ‘external relations’ of one’s own law with the law of other peoples in other lands, now it is a view of transnational legal patterns and of the cultural complexities of law at home. We live in conditions where the law of the nation-state must respond to a great plurality of demands from different population groups within its jurisdiction. At the same time, it must respond to powerful external pressures. Legal thought in national contexts is being fragmented from within in a new ‘jurisprudence of difference’…and globalized from without in demands for transnational harmonization or uniformity. (“Culture, Comparison, Community” by Roger Cotterrell) Kindly react to this statement, supporting your personal views and conclusions with research, analysis, examples and well-reasoned...
Words: 4279 - Pages: 18
..."The Persistence of Racial and Ethnic Profiling in the U.S." Accessed on February 9, 2018, from https://www.aclu.org/report/persistence-racial-and-ethnic-profiling-united-states Benzine, C. 5 "Civil Rights and Liberties: 2 Crash Course Government # 23." PBS Digital studios, Retrieved on February 9, 2018, from http://www.pbs.org/video/crash-course-government-23/ Colb, S. 1 "The US Supreme Court Declares Warrantless Dog Sniffs of Private Front Porches Unconstitutional, Or Does it? A Closer Look at Florida v. 6 Jardines, April 17, 2013, Accessed from https://verdict.justia.com/2013/04/17/the-u-s-supreme-court-declares-warrantless-dog-sniffs-of-private-front-porches-unconstitutional-or-does-it Cornell Law School. 4 "Terry Stop/ Stop and Frisk." 1 Accessed on February 9, 20178, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/terry_stop_stop_and_frisk Findlaw. 7 "Are DUI Checkpoints Legal?" 8 Retrieved on February 9, 2018, from http://traffic.findlaw.com/traffic-stops/are-DUI-checkpoints-legal-.html Findlaw. “Civil Rights: U.S. Supreme Court Decisions" Accessed on 9/2/18 from http://civilrights.findlaw.com/civil-rights-overview/civil-rights-u-s-supreme-court-decisions.html Harriot, M. 1 "Philly Cops' 5 Habit of Fondling Black Men Sparks Greatest Protest of All...
Words: 1342 - Pages: 6
...The vital problem of death penalty for children as one of the most important issues of the contemporary system of justice. The death penalty issue has always been one of the most important issues of the contemporary system of justice. Years ago the majority of the criminals were male over 20, but nowadays the situation has quite changed. Not only grown-ups but also by children who are under 18 years old nowadays commit murders and other terrible crimes. Ordinarily, a young criminal is not applied the same restrictions for his crime as a grown criminal is, nevertheless if it especially goes about capital crimes people start talking about the death penalty for such juveniles. A child always remains a child and if he commits a crime it is not because he has had a good life. It is not the guilt of the children, but their big misfortune. It is a misfortune of not having anybody to love and truly support them and lead them in the correct direction. Along with that it is common knowledge that the period of 11 through 17 is a period of an especially intensive changes both in the organism and the mind of a child. That is why it is not fair to put a child in the same line with a grown up that can be completely responsible for his actions. A child is not mentally capable of comprehending the crime he or she commits. The system of values in the age under 18 is not built yet, other people can easily influence children and the psychic process are not stable yet. Under these conditions...
Words: 2570 - Pages: 11
...Professional Studies Assignment Introduction For this essay I will be reflecting on an incident from practice, by drawing on developing knowledge, understanding and the application of professional studies. Reflection offers an opportunity to learn through an experience. This allows us to develop or sustain effective practice (Johns, 2000). I will be using the Gibbs (1988) reflective framework to structure my reflection (see appendix A). I find this framework very easy to follow, and as Clodagn (2003), explains it allows a person to implement alternative actions to an event, if followed. The incident will be described and the influence of key issues relating to ethical theories and decision-making, illness journeys and lay and professional perspectives will be explored. Principles of nursing models will be looked at and their contribution to individual patient care. I will also look at resource management, quality assurance and the role of evidence-based practice. For the purpose of this essay, to maintain confidentiality, the patient will be referred to as Mr Charlie Wood, (NMC code of professional conduct 2002; 5.1). Incident The incident occurred when I was a student on a medical ward. Mr. Wood, age 80 had been admitted to hospital following a stroke. From this he had lost the ability to mobilise and speak effectively. He was a very dependent gentleman and counted on the nurses to undertake all aspects of his care. His wife, whose name has also...
Words: 3282 - Pages: 14
...Laurie Mosley Ethics Mrs. Kauffman May 30, 2015 Juvenile Capital Punishment The youngest offender ever executed in the United States was James Arcene, a ten year old Cherokee, who was hanged in Arkansas in 1885 for participating in a robbery and murder (James Austin, 2000). Juvenile capital punishment has always been a highly controversial and publicized matter. As a society we recognize that children, those under eighteen years old, cannot and do not function as adults. Because children do not function as adults, the law takes special steps to protect children from the consequences of their actions and often gives them a second chance. The law prohibits people under eighteen years old from voting, serving in the military, and serving on juries. Majority of the criminals are male offenders over twenty years old, but this is changing rapidly. Not only are adults committing capital offenses, but children who are under eighteen years old are committing such heinous offenses. A child that commits a heinous crime is not mentally capable of comprehending the crime he or she commits. The system of values in the age under eighteen is not built yet, other people can easily influence children, and the psychiatric processes are not yet stable. Under these conditions a child should never be sentenced to death or a life in prison because their mind is not fully developed. Children still have a chance to change and be rehabilitated. ...
Words: 1964 - Pages: 8
