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Christopher Simmons Supreme Court Case

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According to the Supreme Court, in 1993, Christopher Simmons went into Shirley Crook’s home with in mind to steal and harm her. Simmons was 17 years old at the time of this crime. According to the report, Simmons had spoken to his friends of the plan to kill the family, thinking he could get away with it because of his age. According to the report, Simmons was arrested the next day, he and his friends. Simmons confessed to the murder and how he did it. At the trial, the jury found him guilty. During the sentencing hearing, the defense attorneys asked the jury to use Simmons’ age as a factor and that he had no prior arrest reports so that Simmons would not receive the death penalty. Nevertheless, the jury focused on the brutal and aggravated …show more content…

Simmons age and bad childhood came up at the trial as an issue. The trial court continued with the jury's death penalty. The Missouri Supreme Court upheld the conviction and the U.S. Supreme Court denied review. Simmons’ attempt at legal relief from the federal courts (habeas corpus) was also denied. (Roper v, Simmons, 1993) According to Missouri Supreme Court in 2002, the Supreme Court ruling in Atkins v. Virginia (2002) turned the death penalty for the mentally retarded and Missouri Supreme Court reconsidered Simmons' case. The Missouri Supreme Court concluded that, "a national consensus has developed against the execution of juvenile offenders" and sentenced Simmons to life imprisonment without parole. (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002) The State of Missouri appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. On January 26, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari (agreed to hear the case) and ordered oral arguments in the case.(Roper v Simmons, …show more content…

Virginia, 2002)case was argued in the Supreme Court in 2004 because is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States 6-3-that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the 8th Amendment that ban cruel and unusual punishments, but states can define who has intellectual disability (mental retarded).According to the court report, Christopher Simmons committed this crime at age seventeen. The eighth amendment’s state protects people with disabilities, therefore Christopher Simmons Case was reopened and the death penalty was taken off the table but given life in prison for the murder he committed. (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002) In my opinion, I clearly respect the court’s ruling, a person or person’s being young does not think about what he or she does before doing it. I am not asking to give juveniles a pat on the back for the heinous crimes they commit but consider their environment, cultural background, mental status, religion, poverty and etc. I do support why kill the juvenile, let he/she spend the rest of their behind bars. One of the Ten Commandments is “thy shall not kill,” again I support the decision that was

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Tuan Taruselli-Stormes Professor Monica Swaner English 102 February 20, 2017 A Rhetorical Analysis of “State of Oregon v. Kipland Philip Kinkel” October 16, 2002, P.J. Haselton filed court documents from the case of Kipland Philip Kinkel. This was a trial based on the 111 years and 8 months’ life term sentence Kinkel had received form an earlier trial for four counts of murder and 26 counts of attempted murder. Through this trial, they recapped the original trial, and deliberated over the evidence presented by Mr. Kinkel’s lawyers. Judge Haselton entertained the courts with their premises for grounds of inhumane violations of article I, section 15, and Article I, section 16, of the Oregon State Constitution.

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Stanford V. Kentucky The juvenile justice system has had many famous court cases, such as Kent V. United States, Breed V. Jones, Eddings V. Oklahoma and many more. There comes times when the supreme court comes across very difficult decisions. The one court case that stands out from the rest is Stanford V. Kentucky. This court case was brought to light around June,1989, and the end result was the minimum age for the death penalty was set at 16 years old.

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The jury only took 35 minutes to convict Sullivan. Even though there was no physical or biological evidence linking Sullivan to the crime, as well as the lack of testimony from the victim, who was unable to identify her attacker; poor Sullivan was sentenced to life without parole (Agyepong, children left behind

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Christopher Simmons was not your typical American teenager. Abused and neglected as a young boy, by the time he was seventeen years old he became a convicted murderer and was sentenced to the maximum punishment which is the death penalty. Christopher Simmons was old enough and mature enough to understand that what he did was morally and socially wrong. If someone can completely conjugate up a murder plot by oneself, then they should be sentenced to the death penalty no matter the age. Simmons should have received the death penalty despite his age at the time of the crime he perpetrated.

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In a new 2012 case, Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that mandatory sentencing of minors convicted of homicide to

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Kansas v. Hendricks is a Case that went through Kansas Supreme Court's 1n 1997. The case involved Hendricks a sex offender. In a narrative I will be talking about the case. I will give facts, issues, and court holdings about the case.

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He also tried to reach for a deputy’s gun, in which he again was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Simmons kept waiving his rights to appeal, to try to get away with being “insane”. This shows that he was for sure competent enough to think about those things, so what exactly was wrong with this man? Then finally in 1990, with Simmons accepting his fate, Bill Clinton signed his death warrant for June 25, 1990. This was the fastest sentence to death ever since the death penalty was put into

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Since Simmons was 17 at the time, he was far from the jurisdiction of the states’ juvenile court system. Because of this, he was tried as an adult. At the trial, a videotaped confession was shown as was a reenactment of the crime, along with a testimony with Simmons bragging about the kill. During the trial, the defense called no witnesses so it was straight to the verdict. With all of the overwhelming evidence, he was sentenced to death.

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Christopher Simmons was a seventeen year old juvenile from Missouri whom in 1993 along with two of his friends, Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer, planned to rob and murder Shirley Crook in her home (Roper v. Simmons, 2004). On the night the crime was to be committed, Tessmer pulled out of the plan, and Simmons and Benjamin would continue on as planned. The two broke into the Ms. Crook’s home, robbed her, tied her up, covered up her eyes, then drove her to a state park and threw her off a bridge. During the trial, evidence, videotaped reenactment and testimony outlining the premeditated plan, allowed for the jury to easily convict Simmons of the crime. Even though Simmons had no previous criminal record and was a minor at the time the crime was committed,

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1284 Words | 6 Pages

At the age of 17, Christopher Simmons planned and pursued his plan of kidnapping, tying up, and throwing his neighbor, Shirley Crook off of a bridge. Missouri attorneys claim that Simmons boasted about his plan of killing his neighbor. Thinking that he could get away with it because he was only 17 years old, which is not fair. But other attorneys claim that Simmons should not get the death penalty because it violates the 8th amendment. Considering Simmons still committed murder and put the innocent women to a cruel death, he should have been given the death penalty.

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In April of 1980, Bobby James Moore of Harris County Texas murdered a 73 year old store owner, James McCarble, in an attempted robbery. After the court hearings, Bobby Moore was sentenced to death in July of 1980, but has been sitting on death row until now. The court has recently brought his case up again to determine if the death sentence was ethic and correct for his circumstance. Five of the current Supreme Court justices have agreed that Moore should not be given the death sentence because he was intellectually disabled. Bobby Moore’s lawyer argued in defense of Moore saying that when he was given the death penalty that they were using an outdated definition of intellectual disability.

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In Roper v. Simmons there are two issues that must be addressed, the first being the issue of moral maturity and culpability. The defense in the trial phase of this case argued that Mr. Simmons was an at an age where he was not responsible enough to fully understand the effects and consequences of his actions. The majority draws on Atkins v. Virginia to argue that this specific precedent supports their case that the death penalty should not be imposed on the mentally immature or impaired. However, an important point to be made is that the Atkins v. Virginia decision is geared towards the clinical definition of mental retardation: significant limitations that limit adaptive skills. Also, another important question to consider is the competency and premeditation of Mr. Simmons’ crime in this case.

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The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of the United is one of the shortest amendments, but its understanding has caused many debates. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted (). The 1960s brought challenges to the fundamental legality of the death penalty. Before then, the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments were interpreted as permitting the death penalty (Death Penalty Information Center, 2015). The eighth Amendment was born from the 1689 English Bill of Rights.

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Crimes are happening around us whether we pay attention to them or not. Those crimes as dangerous as murder are committed by all ages but should younger criminal in their juvenile age received the same punishment as older criminals. On June 25, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that juveniles committed murder could not be sentenced to life in prison because it violates the Eighth Amendment.(On-Demand Writing Assignment Juvenile Justice) Advocates on the concurring side believes that mandatory life in prison is wrong and should be abolish. However, the dissenting side believe that keeping the there should be a life in prison punishment for juvenile who commit heinous crime regardless of their age.

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In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that it is immoral to give juveniles life sentences, even if they commit a crime as serious as murder, because it is a cruel and unusual punishment. This has been an issue in America as teenagers are often treated as adults in court due to a belief that their crimes warrant a harsh punishment. Many believe that these kids should not be given such major sentences because they are still immature and do not have the self control that adults do. I agree that juveniles do not deserve life sentences because they put less thought and planning into these crimes and they often are less malicious than adults. The article “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” explains that the teenagers lose brain tissue that is responsible for self control and impulses (Thompson 7).

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