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Coker Vs Harvey

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What crimes are worthy of the death penalty? Many tax payers debate whether their money should go towards the death of an inmate. Throughout history we have seen many cases that have paved the way for what crimes are considered worthy of the death penalty. Coker V. Georgia is one of those many cases. Coker committed a series of crimes but fought the penalty of one of his convictions, to which the Supreme Court agreed with him.
Ehrlich Anthony Coker was serving three life sentences, two twenty-year sentences and an eighty-year sentence for a string of various crimes. His crimes included the rape and murder of a sixteen-year old girl. While Coker was eighteen months into his sentences, he was able to escape from Ware Correctional Institution …show more content…

Coker gave a plea of insanity which was rejected by the jury. The jury’s verdict on the rape charge was death by electrocution. (Latzer, 61-62) “For a rapist to be executed in Georgia, it must be found that not only was rape committed but that one or more of the following circumstances was present 1) rape was committed by a person with a prior record convicted of a capital felony 2) rape was committed while the offender was engaged in the commission of another capital felony 3) the rape “was outrageously horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture, depravity of mind, or aggravated battery of the victim.” (Latzer, 65) In this circumstance the jury found that 1 and 2 were both present in this …show more content…

(Oyez) The Supreme Court concluded that the death penalty for the crime of rape was disproportionate punishment. For the majority opinion, Justice Byron White said “Rape is without doubt deserving of serious punishment; but in the terms of moral depravity and of the injury to the person and to the public, it does not compare with murder, which does involve the unjustified taking of a human life… The murderer kills; the rapist no more than that, does not. Life is over for the victim of the murderer; for the rape victim, life may not be nearly so happy as it was, but it is not over and normally is not beyond repair. We have the abiding conviction that the death penalty, which ‘is unique in its severity and irrevocability’… is an excessive penalty for the rapist who, as such, does not take human life” (LII / Legal Information Institute) On the dissenting side Chief Justice Burger stated “In a case such as this, confusion often arises as to the Court’s proper role in reaching a decision. Our task is not to give effect to our individual views on capital punishment; rather, we must determine what the Constitution permits a State to do under its reserved powers. In striking down the death penalty imposed upon the petitioner in this case, the Court has overstepped the bounds of proper constitutional adjudication by substituting its policy judgment for that of the state legislature. I accept that the Eighth

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