Roper V. Simmons Case Study

The issue involved in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Roper v. Simmons (2005) affects the Eighth and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution (Roper v. Simmons, 2015). The visited factors included whether it is permissible under both Amendments to execute an individual for the commission of a capital offense committed while the offender was under the age of 18 (Roper v. Simmons, 2015). In Roper v. Simmons (2005), 17-year-old, Christopher Simmons, committed capital murder and after he turned 18, he was sentenced to death.

Case Facts:

At the young age of 17 years, Christopher Simmons planned and later committed a capital murder (Roper v. Simmons, 2015). Prior to the commission of the offense, Simmons expressed his desire to murder someone and talked about his plan while discussing it with his two friends, Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer, both of which were minors (Roper v. Simmons, 2015). After proposing to commit burglary and murder, Simmons assured his juvenile friends that they would “get away with it” because they were minors (Roper v. Simmons, 2015). Following that discussion, the three parties met at approximately 2:00 am with

Simmons, 2015). During closing arguments, both the prosecutor and defense counsel addressed the fact that Simmons was merely 17 years old, which was considered as a mitigating factor (Roper v. Simmons, 2015). Approximately nine months later, after Simmons turned 18 years-old, Simmons was sentenced to death for the commission of this offense (Roper v. Simmons, 2015). As a result, the jury recommended the death penalty, which the judge subsequently imposed against 17-year-old Simmons (Roper v. Simmons, 2015). Simmons’ direct appeal and subsequent petitions for state and federal post-conviction relief were rejected (Roper v. Simmons,