...The 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” meaning that all people are under subjection of due process. Due process is the legal requirement, by state and federal government, to acknowledge the legal rights that a person owns. Since November 10, 2001, due process has changed in the United States wherein enemy combatants do not receive the right to due process anymore. Although America has moved far along since the new due process acts, Bush and Obama have been under constant fire for “obstruction of civil rights”. In the 1963 Supreme Court case of Gideon v. Wainwright, Clarence Earl Gideon was charged with breaking and entering with intent for petty larceny. The offense had occurred between midnight and 8:00AM when a person had broken a door, smashed cigarette machines, and stolen money out of the cash register. Based upon the single accusation of Gideon leaving the store with a bottle of wine and cash at 5:30PM, he was...
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...has done is morally unjust, but who can justify that they have greater morality. In many instances the judgment of another has put innocent people to death, life isn’t a game to take chances on. Government plays a huge role in everyone life, whether the person is illegally or not however it should not have the control over any ones existence. In the cases of Furman V. Georgia, and Gregg V. Georgia death has been debated, from both of these cases our government has grown to challenge the decision of death. In the case Furman V. Georgia our government adopted the requirements on...
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...death for being a spy. Other colonies began to pass laws specifying crimes that would constitute the death penalty. As years passed and colonies became states, the death penalty was still being used. However in 1972, there was a four year suspension of the death penalty. In Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty as a violation of the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment which opposes to cruel and unusual punishment. In this Supreme Court case, a resident woke up while William Furman was committing a robbery. William Furman tried to escape but he stumbled and the gun he was carrying mistakenly went off killing the resident in the home. At this point, William Furman was found guilty of robbery and murder. As mentioned above, the court concluded the death penalty itself was cruel and unusual punishment...
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...The Use of Human Dignity in Death Penalty Cases: An International perspective An examination of cases from several jurisdictions that address the legality of the death penalty reveals various uses of the notion of human dignity. In 1972, in Furman v. Georgia, the United States Supreme Court declared all existing death penalty statutes at the time unconstitutional as a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibiting "cruel and unusual punishment". There was no majority opinion, and each of the five majority members wrote a separate opinion. While three of them based their decision on the arbitrary and discriminatory application of the death penalty in the U.S., Justices Brennan and Marshall based their opinions on the per-se unconstitutionality of capital punishment. Justice Brennan argued that although human dignity is not explicitly guaranteed by the United States Constitution, it is the fundamental concept underlying the Eighth Amendment. In his opinion: "The State, even as it punishes, must treat its members with respect for their intrinsic worth as human beings. A punishment is "cruel and unusual, therefore, "if it does not comport with human dignity". He declared that the severity of capital punishment is degrading to the dignity of a man, and since even the vilest criminals share an inherent dignity, the punishment is unconstitutional. Though in Brennan words human dignity functions as a justification for the Eight Amendment, they seem to illustrate the psychological approach...
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...Gregg was convicted of two murders and armed robbery, the penalty for which would be death. He went to Georgia’s Supreme Court and they upheld the decision under the murder convictions, although they threw out the robbery convictions because robbery wasn’t generally a capital offense. Gregg appealed to the Supreme Court, and they took the case He desired to make the death penalty unconstitutional Gregg had two trials: one to assess his guilt and the next for sentencing Issue: “Is the imposition of the death sentence prohibited under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments as "cruel and unusual" punishment? (cruel and unusual punishment)” Decision of the Court "Holding": The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Georgia, deciding that, as long...
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...“Death Penalty” Furman was a poor black man living in Georgia when he broke into William Joseph Micke, Jr’s house, Mr. Micke went downstairs to investigate and saw William Furman in his house with a gun. Furman began to flee the house but tripped in the process and fired the gun accidently shooting Mr. Micke in the chest and killing him instantly. Furman was later found by the police still carrying the gun and arrested for murder. This case is known as Furman v. Georgia and was taken to the Supreme Court on the fact that the death penalty in Georgia violated the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This is a landmark case because “The significance of Furman v. Georgia is that this case was the first case that was ruled violating the Eighth amendment and that it halted every man on death row in the United States” (study). But before the case reached the Supreme Court the case went on trial September 20, 1968 where Furman pleaded mentally ill and insane, the court rejected his plea and found him guilty of murder. Then, Furman appealed his conviction and sentence, based on the death penalty in Georgia violating the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution . The Eighth Amendment says the federal government may not use "cruel and unusual punishments” (Henson). The case was later tried in the Supreme Court January 17, 1972. The justices who won majority and reversed the case were William J. Brennan, Jr., William O. Douglas, Thurgood Marshall, Potter...
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...Trials where the death penalty is a possible sentence have more legal requirements than non-death penalty trials, and therefore, cost more to fulfill these requirements. The requirements include costs for prosecuting and defense attorneys, interpreters, expert witnesses, court reporters, psychiatrists, secretaries, and jury consultants (“Costs of the…”) as well as “the necessity for two trials – one on guilt and one on sentencing” (Dieter). According to an article by the Death Penalty Information Center, “a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment in the United States” (“What’s New”), “the average cost of defending a trial in a federal death case is $620,932, about eight times that of a federal murder case in which the death penalty was not sought” (“Costs of the…”). Take the state of Washington for example. A study conducted by the University of Seattle determined that “in Washington each death penalty case cost an average of one million dollars more than a similar case where the death penalty was not sought (on average $3.07 million v. $2.01 million)” (“Costs of the…”). Similarly “since the death penalty’s reinstatement in Washington in 1981, Washington has carried out five executions, each costing an average twenty four million dollars” (“Costs of the…”). This exorbitant cost can also be exemplified through the state of California, where the...
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...cruel and unusual punishment. With that being said, this paper will discuss the constitutionality of the death penalty. Controversy over the death penalty in the U.S. Supreme Court can be traced back to 1879 with Wilkerson v. Utah, which stated that the Utah territorial statue of execution by firing squad was not cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment of the U.S. constitution. (Wikipedia: Wilkerson v. Utah) In 1972, the United States Supreme Court struck down capital punishment, reducing all death...
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...decades. But there are still a lot of controversies around it. Many people are against the death penalty because of many reasons. For example, everyone should have the right to live, sometimes juries are racially biased and wrongful executions could happen. And some people want the death penalty. They say some felony criminals need retribution and the court needs to show deterrence. This conversation has been brought up again recently because of the case Foster V. Chatman. ABA (American...
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...Brennan, that the death penalty is unconstitutional. After this decision the court has decide to leave the decision on the states to make their laws on the issue of capital punishment. Now advocates are trying to make new laws to end the autocracy and 35 states including Florida they enact the new laws of death penalty. Death penalty was imposed by Supreme Court in 1976 with some reforms which were come from all the states. They provide some guidelines for judge & jury on which behalf death penalty should impose. The guidelines were accepted in 1976 by supreme court in in Gregg v. Georgia (428 U.S. 153), Jurek v. Texas (428 U.S. 262), and Proffitt v. Florida (428 U.S. 242) and commonly this decision is known as Gregg decision. This death penalty decision is imposed or we can say reinstated first on Florida, Georgia & Texas. It came under the 8th amendments of the constitution. Under these reforms there were three procedures which is going to follow every time when someone came under death penalty. First bifurcated trials happened in which there is separate comment for the guilt and number of phases of the trial. Then after it second one is to see whether the crime require death penalty or lesser punishment. Last reform is to review convictions and punishment made. These procedural reforms will helps to states to eliminate the death penalty cases. Due to these reforms which force to Supreme Court to reinstate the death penalty in 1976 after a 4 year hiatus. It is not used...
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...the crime. Since 1973, hundreds of innocent people have been released from death row, after the evidence that sentenced them to death was found to be inaccurate. Many of these innocent people were victims of wrongful convictions based on confused witnesses, mistakes by lawyers and inaccurate forensics, while the person actually responsible for the crime was still free. Cases involving DNA evidence in court, such as Ray Krone's case, can be denied access even if life and death are on the ropes. Found guilty, Krone was sentenced to death for rape and murder in Arizona, even though DNA found on the victim did not correlate with his. Arizona argued that no submission of DNA evidence could interfere with the jury decision. A decade later, without a court order, a crime lab worker identified the person who actually committed the crime through DNA evidence, and Ray Krone was luckily exonerated before his death. Likewise in 2011, Troy Davis was convicted in Georgia for murdering police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. Physical evidence did not convict him, but testimonies from nine witnesses strongly tied him to the case. After Davis’s execution, seven witnesses changed their testimonies, two remained in what they believed...
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...The case of Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, (1977), is a United States Supreme Court case which address a claim of cruel and unusual punishment, under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as well as a proportionality claim (Cornell University, n.d.). The petitioner in this case, Ehrlich Anthony Coker, claimed that the state of Georgia had violated his Eighth Amendment rights, when he was given a death sentence for his rape of an adult female, and subsequently claims that the punishment was too severe for the crime he committed, thus the proportionality claim. Ehrlich Anthony Coker was an inmate in a Georgia state prison, serving three life sentences, for rape and murder, as well as two 20 year sentences, and one 8...
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...Criminological Relationships between Theory and Policy American Intercontinental University Julie Hurden Abstract This paper will discuss three policies within the criminological field and the theories that might have influenced them. The three policies and two theories that will be discussed in this paper are the death penalty, three strikes laws and expunging of records, the classical school of criminology and the labeling theory. This paper will discuss rulings by the Supreme Court concerning the “Three Strikes and You’re Out” laws and the death penalty policies. It will review the Eighth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Criminological Relationships between Theory and Policy Three Strikes and You’re out Law (TSAYO) The Three Strikes Laws are basically laws that order increased sentences for repeat criminals, this increased sentence is given after three felony crimes have been committed by an offender. Most state and federal laws in the United States require harsher punishment for repeat offenders but they are not as severe as the “Three Strikes and You’re Out” (TSAYO) laws. TSAYO was passed into law to help protect society from persons that are dangerous and have exhibited a pattern of criminal behavior, to break it down this law simply takes repeat offenders out of the game by putting them in prison and hopefully deter others from committing...
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...penalty is constitutional. In the Gregg case, the majority in the Supreme Court stated that the new requirements in order to sentence someone prevents jury’s from being, “Cruel and unusual”. “Moreover, they added the new Georgia statues were sufficiently rigorous so as to ensure that the death penalty would not be arbitrarily applied”, (Potter Stewart). Because Georgia has made strict rules in order to regulate death penalties, it has stopped jury’s from making decisions capriciously and arbitrarily. “The new Georgia sentencing procedures by contrast, focus the jury’s attention on the particularized nature of the crime and the particularized characteristics of the individual defendant.” Capital punishment is constitutional according to the Gregg vs. Georgia precedent. Before the judges can pull out the execution card, now they are obligated to examine the details of the action committed and examine the circumstances that have made the criminal commit the crime. By doing this first simple procedure it gives the defendant a chance to know that their truth would be valuable and would feel more security in knowing they wouldn't be discriminated on. Including every person that gets death penalty as a punishment will get an automatic appeal. The defendants would get a second chance to re-analyze the case, so they can re-measure the factors that sentence that person to execution. Opponents of the death penalty might argue that in the Furman v. Georgia violates the 8th Amendment. Furman...
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...whole lot about our justice system. I’ve been able to put my mind at ease, seeing what could be in store for me. I found this guy named Walker. He talks a lot about racial inequality and the idea that our justice system is racist, skewed in the favor of white men, specifically for the death penalty. He talks about the 1972 case of Furman v. Georgia which the United States Supreme Court declares that death penalty is unconstitutional on account of how it’s being administered at the time. This causes death rows across the country to empty out, and no one being fed back into the system to replace them. It was thought to be a precursor to abolishment of the death penalty, but that wasn’t the case. No, the Supreme Court decided instead to require many states to create new statutes which were to prevent discriminatory sentencing to death based on race. This resulted in two different types of statutes. The first kind required the judge or jury to impose death penalty if the defendant was convicted of first degree murder, regardless of race. The second allowed the judge or jury to impose the death penalty on the basis of certain crimes. This required the court to have a trial which first decided guilt and then decided to impose the death penalty or not. It was also required...
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