Christopher Simmons Supreme Court Case

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

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,

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