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Hickock And Bonnie Clutter's Case Analysis

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Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act. The past week has been spent investigating the case of the quadruple murders of the Clutter Family: Herbert and Bonnie Clutter, alongside their two youngest children, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter. The trial that has taken place this past week to find the defendants, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, guilty of first degree murder due to the premeditated nature of the crimes committed. Under the Class A felony both defendants are eligible for the death penalty by lethal injection. The Jury has concluded after reviewing the evidence provided and the psychological examinations that, the defendants, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith should be sentenced to life in …show more content…

Nurture. Hickock suffering a physical injury that affected his frontal lobe and skewered his personality and judgement. On the other hand, Smith experienced a traumatic childhood that affected his mental health and with it being detrimental to not only him, but the society as a whole as it gave rise to his criminal behaviours. In Smith’s case it can be argued that his lawlessness is the result of embracing “causes that they could use as vehicles in their search for excitement, power, and conquest.” (Psychology Today.) Furthermore, Smith’s mental instability is proven in his confession where he said, “They [the Clutters] never hurt me. Like other people. Like people have all my life. Maybe it’s just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it.” (302.) It can be concluded that Smith’s upbringing and environment curated these hostilities and viewpoints and makes him deserving of life in prison rather than death. On the contrary, Hickock’s case is simply nature as his serious head injury did show signs of “organic brain damage.” (294.) that may have substantial influence on his criminality. Additionally, Hickock displays many attributes of a person suffering severe character disorder (295.) which can be described as a discourse in one’s virtue and social conscientiousness in their personality. All in all, Hickock’s behaviour can be seen as an offspring of his car collision in 1950s which may have either intensified his previous innate tendencies or truly had given birth to the present characteristics. With all of this in mind, the jury would conclude that it is only righteous to sentence the defendants in question to life in prison, rather than the death penalty as it would be inhumane to take another life in the process of bringing justice to

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