ipl-logo

Criminal Cases: The Florida Case Of Cooper V. State (1999)

575 Words3 Pages

Although current law does not distinctly define TBIs according to mens rea or diminished capacity, a possible defense that may appropriately be applied to criminal cases is the law as it relates to mitigating circumstances in sentencing. The Florida case of Cooper v. State (1999) is just one of very few cases in the country that seemingly acknowledges the fact that recurrent or traumatic head injuries may be a mitigating factor to criminal behavior. The defendant, Albert Cooper, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery with a firearm, and armed burglary with a firearm after him and his partner, Tivan Johnson, killed the owner of a local pawnshop, Charles Barker, after robbing the location on May 25, 1991. The court ultimately found Mr. Cooper guilty as charged, which made him eligible to receive …show more content…

Coopers behalf, alleging that mitigating factors made him ineligible for capital punishment (Cooper v. State, 1999). The defense argued that the defendant suffered from severe and significant brain injuries that caused an impairment in judgement at the in which the crime occurred. Even though Mr. Cooper was 18 years-old when the crime took place, both his family and expert witnesses testified that Mr. Cooper had suffered from a substantial amount of physical and mental abuse throughout most of his early childhood, which eventually led Mr. Cooper to develop chronic symptoms commonly associated with severe cognitive and psychological dysfunction. For instance, one sister testified that she saw their father smash Mr. Cooper’s head against the family’s refrigerator on numerous occasions; his other sister claimed that their father would literally put a gun up to their heads as children any time that he wanted to threaten them into following his rules or directions; and Mr. Cooper’s aunt also testified to similar claims as the two sisters as well (Cooper v. State,

Show More
Related
395 Words | 2 Pages

On October 1, 2003, Dawna Cantrell was arrested and charged with the murder of her husband and two counts of tampering with evidence. Ms. Cantrell’s competency was questioned after evaluation by the defense expert, Dr. Eric Westfried. After subsequent evaluation by the state’s expert, Dr. Edward Siegel, both experts found that Ms. Cantrell had a “persecutory delusional disorder” and that her mental illness precluded her from assisting her attorney in her defense. The trial court found her incompetent to stand trial and ordered a dangerousness evaluation.

Read More
578 Words | 3 Pages

Money has been used for a long time. It is present in daily actions such as buying or selling products, paying or receiving for services and it is also used to store of value. In the past money was not so efficient because private banks were allowed to print their own money, in consequence was hard to know the real value of the money and if the bank had gold or silver to support the money they were printing. As a result inflation was caused, in addition to inflation the national debt was very high in consequence of War of 1812. Americans saw a need for change.

Read More
538 Words | 3 Pages

Pursing this argument further about the use of informant’s I would now like to observe the credibility of an informant is yet another attribute that leads to the wrongful conviction of the innocent. In the case of North Carolina vs. Darryl Hunt, there were multiple informants used to testify in case. Darryl Hunt who was wrongly convicted at just the age of 19 back in 1984 and spent 19 years of his life locked away after he was accused of the murder of young white beautiful Deborah Sykes a newspaper editor at the time. Although Darryl had DNA testing to prove his innocents, judicial system place the blame on this young, at the time African American male, in order to come to a resolution. Throughout the Darryl Hunt case there were faulty eyewitness testimonies that not only corrupted the

Read More
676 Words | 3 Pages

Sovereign Immunity: Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida (1996) Summary: The "Seminole Tribe of Florida vs. Florida" case of 1996 centered on the question of whether the state of Florida had the authority to regulate and tax gambling activities carried out by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The case arose after the tribe began operating high-stakes bingo games on their reservation in 1979, leading to a dispute with the state over the legality of their gaming activities. In 1988, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) was passed by the US Congress, which gave tribes the ability to have gaming activities on their lands under certain conditions. However, the Seminole Tribe continued to face opposition from the state, which argued that they had no right to offer Class III gaming activities (such as slot machines and casino-style games) without a valid compact between the state and the tribe.

Read More
541 Words | 3 Pages

Steven Avery fights to prove his claimed innocence. Steven claims that "they set him up," when he was investigated and was told that he was not a suspect. The investigation of Teresa's death resulted in finding an essential in Steven's residence, EDTA test being done, and log documentation of officers. When searching Steven's home, a key that linked to Teresa's Rav 4 was found.

Read More
954 Words | 4 Pages

State of Georgia V. Marcus Dwayne Dixon (2003) Marcus Dixon was a highly recruited high school football player. His life suddenly took a tragic turn when he was falsely convicted of raping a 15 year old girl. The elements around his false conviction could have been avoided with some reform to the criminal justice courts system. Dixon initially had many charges against him but were narrowed down to statutory rape and aggravated child molestation. There was much racial disparity surrounding the jury on Dixon’s case, in that the county that Dixon committed his “crime” was a predominantly white population.

Read More
553 Words | 3 Pages

MILLERSBURG — Despite a plea for leniency expressed by the victim, a Sugarcreek man was unable to overcome a long history of criminal convictions and a bond violation when a Holmes County judge on Wednesday sentenced him to prison for making unwanted phone calls and threats to several members of a family over a period of months. David Lamar Schrock, 43, of 2578 State Route 39, previously pleaded guilty in Holmes County Common Pleas Court to two counts of telephone harassment and one count of menacing by stalking. In exchange for his guilty plea, the state agreed to dismiss two additional counts of telephone harassment and three counts of menacing by stalking. The charges are made more serious because Schrock was convicted, in January 2016,

Read More
729 Words | 3 Pages

State v. Hendrix A Supreme Court case where the defendant Homer O. Hendrix was convicted and found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Hendrix was sentenced to a term of 15 years in prison. The events leading up to the Supreme Court’s ruling takes place take place 3 years earlier. Labor Day, September 1, 1975, Hendrix and another member of the community Norman D. Cherry got into a confrontation on Hendrix’s property.

Read More
312 Words | 2 Pages

In the news a couple of weeks ago, a man was arrested for brutally attacking the mother of his child over a custody dispute. The attacker, Michael Roberson, 45 years old, was charged with first degree murder and aggravated assault because during the attack, Roberson stabbed the victim multiple times and he digged both of the victim’s eyes out of her socket which reportedly happened in front of the child and a neighbor who tried to break up the fight between the attacker and the victim. By the time the victim got to the hospital, there was no way to save her eyes so she has permanently lost her eyesight. According, to the new source, Roberson has a history of assault, however, those charges were dropped by the judge who found Roberson insane

Read More
667 Words | 3 Pages

Introduction The article “Is C.T.E. a Defense for Murder,” published in The New York Times, Amy Dillard, an associate professor at Baltimore School of Law, and Lisa A. Tucker, an associate professor at Dexter University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law, give their views about Aaron Hernandez being convicted of murder. They believe that instead of sending him to prison he should have been sent to a therapeutic hospital to help with his brain disease. I chose this article because C.T.E. is a big issue right now with the NFL. This has been affecting many of the players and the sport itself.

Read More
526 Words | 3 Pages

From believing that the freedom of speech and press was protection against previous regulations to believing that it to be protection against unnecessary harm to the general public, Holmes changes positions between Patterson v. Colorado and Schenck v. United States. In Patterson v. Colorado, Patterson was fined for publishing a cartoon about an active case of the Supreme Court of Colorado. Believing that his rights protected by the 14th Amendment were infringed, Patterson turned to the Supreme Court to repeal his punishment. Holmes argued that the cartoon was an obstruction of justice.

Read More
169 Words | 1 Pages

The reason O.J. was found not guilty of murder and acquitted in criminal court, but found guilty of the tort of harm and ordered to pay damages in the civil court lies in the structure of our legal system, in regards to criminal cases and civil cases. The distinct difference between criminal cases and civil cases provides further explanation regarding the O.J. Simpson case. Criminal cases deal with crimes against society. It is the government, not the victim, who brings action against the charged individual. In criminal cases, the penalties can include a number things including jail time.

Read More
879 Words | 4 Pages

The D.B. Cooper case is the only unsolved hijacking case in the nation. The FBI who were investigating this case for 45, have finally decided to end this hunt because “every time the F.B.I. assesses additional tips for the case, investigative resources and manpower are diverted from programs that more urgently need attention.” On November 24, 1971, a normal looking man carrying a black briefcase walked into Portland International Airport and bought a one-way ticket to Seattle,Washington (man actually paid for his ticket). He told airline workers that his name was Dan Cooper (reporters mistakenly called him D.B. Cooper and that name just stuck).

Read More
716 Words | 3 Pages

On April 25th, 1980 Bobby James Moore and two accomplices robbed a grocery store in Houston, Texas. During the robbery, Moore shot and killed the store clerk, a 76-year-old man named James McCarble and was consequently convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Moore appealed in both state and federal habeas relief courts and was granted relief by a federal court in the Fifth Circuit after arguing that precedent established in Atkins v. Virginia applied to his case. The habeas court granted relief based on the Atkins argument but the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, reversed the ruling stating that Moore was not intellectually disabled based on Ex Parte Briseno and a 1992 definition of intellectual disability. In 2014 Moore filed a writ of certiorari arguing that his constitutional rights have been violated within his 8th Amendment protection against “cruel and unusual punishment” and in combination with the 14th Amendment’s due process clause which he believes to have been violated due to the delay of his sentencing, having lasted

Read More
1309 Words | 6 Pages

Source 1 Hiromoto, L., Keltner, C., Frizzell, W., Chien, J., & Sparr, L. (2022). PTSD and trauma as mitigating factors in sentencing in capital cases. The journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 50(1), 22-33. III. The perpetuation of violence A.

Read More

More about Criminal Cases: The Florida Case Of Cooper V. State (1999)

Open Document