ipl-logo

Coker Vs Harvey

931 Words4 Pages

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

Show More
Related
736 Words | 3 Pages

Coker got caught by the police with a road block. Police saved Mrs. Carver and she showed to not be harmed, except for the raping. After he was caught he did indeed go back to jail. On March 28, 1977 the issue was argued in front of the Supreme Court of Georgia. “In a 7-to-2 decision, the Court held that the death penalty was a "grossly disproportionate" punishment for the crime of rape.

Read More
779 Words | 4 Pages

The Supreme Court decided that the actual acted of the death wasn’t unconstitutional “but that the procedures and applications as practices by the States were.” ("Supreme Court Cases.") The original ruling was overturned and William Furman would not be executed. The court in the case explained that only way capital punishment would be eligible is if they could form a uniform policy. Without a uniform policy, the death penalty will be considered as a cruel and unusual punishment.

Read More
153 Words | 1 Pages

After examining our responses to the case of Stanley “Tookie” Williams, it is evident that we displayed contrasting views on whether or not Williams’ should have received the death penalty. In your response, you state that “Williams’s sentence should have been changed to life in prison,” whereas I argue “his sentence should not be commuted to life in prison.” It is my belief that Williams’ deserved the death penalty due to the fact that he “didn’t show any sign of remorse” for murdering “four innocent people.” On the subject of executing Williams’, you referred to “execution as freeing someone from suffering, guilt and sins they have committed.” In contrast, you maintain his sentence “should have been changed to life in prison” so

Read More
525 Words | 3 Pages

The people charge him for all of these crimes and he was found guilty by a jury in the Superior Court of Georgia. He was sentenced to death under the Georgia statutes that permitted capital punishment for aggravated crimes. Crimes committed before, convicted for murder a capital felony, moral corruption, and committing the crime after escaping jails were all aggravated factors. Coker appealed his sentencing to death for the rape charge stating that sentencing death for rape violated the eight Amendment. The eight amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, which means the punishment has to match the crime and can not be excessive in comparison to the crime

Read More
500 Words | 2 Pages

He also acknowledged that by allowing the content of a victim impact statement to influence the jury could lead them to choose the death penalty for reasons which were irrelevant to the defendant's decision to kill. This diverted attention from the facts of the crime. Justice Powell determined that by introducing the emotionally-charged opinions of family members into the case would destroy the reasoned decision-making. This is critical in capital cases. The major factor, in this case, argued if the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution protected a defendant from cruel and unusual punishment.

Read More
717 Words | 3 Pages

The case was then heard before the United States Supreme Court. Four Supreme Court justices, Justice White, Justice Stewart, Justice Blackmun and Justice Stevens all concluded the sentence of death for the crime of rape is grossly disproportionate and excessive punishment is is therefore forbidden by the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment (Coker v Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 1977). There was some variation however, between the other Justice’s sitting in on the ruling.

Read More
430 Words | 2 Pages

On November 21, 1973, Troy Leon Gregg and his companion robbed and murdered Fred Edward Simmons and Bob Durwood Moore, two innocent people who were giving them rides. Gregg was convicted for his actions and was given the death penalty. He argued that the sentence was violating his eighth amendment which is “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (U.S. Const. amend. VIII.)

Read More
1434 Words | 6 Pages

Some justices were advocates of capital punishment and some opposed it. For most of chapter three, Oshinsky described the views of the various justices. For example, he noted, “William O. Douglas was a longtime opponent of capital punishment” (Oshinsky, 2010). He also included William Brennan as an opponent of the death penalty. In 1972, the courts announced their Furman decision, voting against the death penalty as practiced (Oshinsky, 2010).

Read More
872 Words | 4 Pages

The most important issue that must be addressed in this case is the principle of the “evolving standards of decency” and the uses of a national consensus. The “evolving standards of decency” were developed by Trop v. Dulles and have been implemented in one way or another in all of the precedents dealing with “cruel and unusual” punishment. It is important to treat these principles as an important aspect of “cruel and unusual” punishment jurisprudence, therefore turning from these set of principles would be foolish and a disregard for every precedent. However, it is important to acknowledge that each case satisfies the standards by using a different method; some use the presence or lack of state legislature as a judgment of consensus while others look at foreign countries.

Read More
1175 Words | 5 Pages

The investigation began with the Court looking for a national consensus against the juvenile death penalty by examining the actions of sentencing juries and state legislation. According to the Court’s calculations, thirty states opposed to the death penalty for juveniles equaled the number of states in Atkins opposed to the death penalty for mentally retarded offenders - a number deemed adequate to show a national consensus against the practice (Leavitt). Justice Kennedy moved on to engage in proportionality analysis and argued that capital punishment must be limited to individuals who commit, “...a narrow category of the most serious of crimes,” and are thus, “...the most deserving of execution” (543 US 551, at 568). Lastly, the analysis led Kennedy to note that America was one of the few countries that allowed capital punishment for offenders under eighteen and, “...acknowledged the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty” (543 US 551, at 571). The Court’s findings ended in a ruling in favor of Simmons and upholding the unconstitutionality of the juvenile death

Read More
872 Words | 4 Pages

If I were a justice on the Supreme Court, in Roper v. Simmons, I would have voted along with the justice on dissent; however, I do not agree with the execution of juveniles, but life in prison for Christopher Simmons should have never been negotiable. As the presiding justice for the Supreme Court, my decision for Simmons would have been life in prison pending that he goes through a series of evaluations. Every case law in the United States is presided by other case laws. However, in Christopher Simmons’s case, he was seventeen at the time of his confession, in which he bragged about his illustration of the crime; therefore, as justice, I would have taken into account Simmons motivation to commit murder.

Read More
805 Words | 4 Pages

(Carmical) In this argument, one must ask what the value of returning these actions to the criminal will be. No one would benefit from raping another human being. In fact, following the original crime with this action would only be degrading the life of the person who was required to deliver the punishment. When a murderer is put to death, they are no longer free to commit future murders the executioner is essentially protecting the lives of other potential victims.

Read More
818 Words | 4 Pages

The death penalty has sparked the conversation since the eighteenth century and has taken hundreds of lives since, but is it cheaper to have someone sent to death row? The death penalty can be big deal, you are taking the life of someone who is a criminal, or a murderer, but it can also be an innocent person 's life. What crimes deserve the death penalty? Most of the time the death penalty is used only on the worst of crimes. The other thing is that each death row prisoner to maintain the prisoner cost taxpayers 90,000 more per year, but without the death penalty cost 740,000, while to use the death penalty cost 1.26 million.

Read More
1684 Words | 7 Pages

Capital punishment is deteriorating in its area of expertise and proves that it indeed does not seem to be changing the level of crime rates. Critics argue that since it fails to discourage murderers, then it serves no purpose in preventing anything. Thurgood Marshall, the late Justice of the United States Supreme Court argues that, "[Capital punishment] violates the Eighth Amendment because it is morally unacceptable to the people of the United States at this time in their history. In judging whether or not a given penalty is morally acceptable, most courts have said that the punishment is valid unless 'it shocks the conscience and sense of justice of the people.' Assuming knowledge of all the facts presently available regarding capital punishment, the average citizen would find it shocking to his conscience and sense of justice.

Read More
754 Words | 4 Pages

However, John Donohue III, a professor of law Stanford University argues that there is simply no evidence supporting reduced rates of homicide when the death penalty is present. He supports his point by showing that Canada, who does not use the death penalty, does not have increased homicide rates as so many death penalty supporters like to assume. However, in support of the death penalty, former associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia makes a compelling point about the constitutionality of the death penalty. Scalia states that the laws are very clear, and the 8th Amendment cannot be applied, as well as the fact that some crimes are deserving of death. This is in reference to a case where an 11-month old child was raped and murdered.

Read More

More about Coker Vs Harvey

Related Topics

Open Document