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Life Without Parole Research Paper

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Research Paper: Life In Prison Without Parole Austin Agyemang Mr. Rank 3/8/2018 American Lit 9 Life in prison without parole is a cruel and harsh punishment but it helps give those in prison time to reflect on their lives, their action, and keep in touch with their families. LWOP still offers to an individual an opportunity to appreciate parts about his/her life, giving them the ability to keep in contact with their families or friends. Someone,who has been put …show more content…

are sentenced to life in prison – whether for murder or for other serious felonies – and 33,000 of those prisoners are serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole. This is ten times the number on death row. One of every 11 offenders in a state or federal prison is now serving a life sentence. This is 9.4% of the prison population – 127, 677 persons. One fourth of these (26.3%) are serving a sentence of life without parole.Life sentences in America today stand at an unprecedented level: as of 2012, 159,520 people in prison were serving a life sentence and 49,081 (30.8%) of them have no possibility for parole. Nationally, one in every nine people in prison today are serving a life sentence (Hugo 132). The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated, “Life without parole provides swift, severe, and certain punishment. It provides justice to survivors of murdered victims and allows more resources to be invested into solving other murders and preventing violence. Sentencing people to die in prison is the sensible alternative for public safety and murdered victims’ families” (ACLU Hill vs …show more content…

The case of Graham vs Florida cleared out any confusion about the LWOP. When Terrace Graham was 16 years old, he was convicted of armed burglary and attempted armed robbery. He served a 12 month sentence and was released. Six months later, Graham was tried and convicted by a Florida State Court of armed home robbery and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. On appeal, he argued that the imposition of a life sentence without parole on a juvenile violated the Eighth Amendment and moreover constituted cruel and unusual punishment, and that violated the Eighth Amendment. The District Court of Appeal of Florida disagreed. It held that Graham’s sentence neither was a facial violation of the Eighth Amendment nor constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2012 that juveniles convicted of murder cannot be subject to a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of

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The punishment is just. Rights belive to be violated 8th amendment 14th amendment Rules: “567 U.S. ___ (2012), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders.[2][3] The ruling extended beyond the Graham v. Florida (2010) case, which had ruled juvenile life without parole sentences unconstitutional for crimes excluding murder”. Analysis: Both sides are in disagreement over whether or not the sentence violates the defendant 8th amendment.

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A New York City man named Anthony brown has spent 15 years of his life in prison or on parole. Brown was 16 years old when he was first incarcerated for selling drugs in 2001. Brown has been incarcerated four times for drug crime and parole violations. He’s currently released form prison and is trying to get off of parole. Browns time in the parole system has been much like the process of being revoked and restored.

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How would you feel if you were on death row awaiting the inevitable? Would you feel as though you are deserving of this punishment or deserve the chance to live? As of January 1st, 2018 over 2,700 inmates are on death row. This means that they will be put to death at some point in the future. Many inmates are often on death row for more than a year which gives them time to reflect on what they have done and the pain it caused.

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Supreme Court has redefined (along with not defining) the Eighth Amendment and “Cruel and Unusual Punishment”. Moreover, the court has intervened in many cases where the death penalty was applied injustice. The Cruel and unusual punishment doctrine has not been well developed. The Supreme Court’s primary concentration has been on the word “cruel” when determining what punishments are prohibited.

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The court decided that the DOC recommendation was not the right sentenced. The court felt that Mr. Graham could not be rehabilitated and will continue to participate criminal activity. Terrance Graham filed a post sentenced motion challenging the Eight Amendment. He is still serving his life sentenced (Graham. Florida, p. 43).

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557). To understand this ruling, one must understand exactly why life-without-parole sentences for juveniles are considered to be cruel and unusual punishment. In Jackson’s case, for example, the facts show that Jackson did not kill anyone, did not possess any weapons, and did not take anything from the store, yet he was still convicted of capital felony-murder and aggravated robbery. Jackson, a young boy who was presumably influenced by the older boys, was being held responsible for crimes that he did not actually commit. During sentencing, the circumstances of the case and Jackson’s age could not be taken into consideration; the mandatory sentence was just handed down.

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On June 25, 2012, the Supreme court ruled that juveniles who committed murder could not be sentenced for to life in prison. Their reasoning was that it violated the 8th Amendment, that stated the ban of cruel and unusual punishment. However, that is not the only reason to have juveniles not be sentenced for life. I agree with the supreme court’s decision because juveniles who commit crime can be coming from an unhealthy background, their brain is not fully developed, and their characters are still in formation. Greg Ousley murdered his parents on February 27, 1993 with a rifle gun that he was found in his house.

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Angela Davis mentioned it I had not thought about life without the possibly of parole as a second death sentence. However, she is right because either way the person dies in prison. Also, she talked about how African American males are incarcerated more than any other group of people, but the incarceration rate for women is increasing. Dr. Davis wants an end to incarceration as we know it, which I completely agree with; however, not having a prison system is not the answer in my opinion.

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For instance, the article claimed, “The first argument is that no fourteen-year-old may be sentenced to LWOP, given a fourteen-year-old’s biologically diminished capacity.” In particular, this means that minors cannot be sentenced to a life in prison. Another example is when the article proclaimed,” The second argument against the sentences in these cases is that even if the Supreme Court concludes that LWOP is sometimes a permissible sentence for a fourteen-year-old homicide offender, the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments demands that the sentencing judge at least have the opportunity to take the age of the offender into account in

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“‘Death sentences represent less than one-tenth of 1% of prison sentences in the United States…,’” (Von Drehle, 9). Furthermore, death row is just a small fraction of the criminal justice system and can not be based on that alone. For instance, what many don't take into account is the justice systems allows for many states, such as the populous state of New York, to ban the death penalty. (state laws, p1)

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Have you ever wondered what serving life in prison without parole would be like ? Life in prison without parole can and will be harsh. It has been proven that people sentenced to life in prison have been condemned to die in prison. Nobody who has been sentenced to life without parole has been released on parole in any state, city or, country. People sentenced to life without parole actually remain in prison for the rest of their lives and die in prison.

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The lack of meaningful activities, limited access to education or rehabilitation programs, and the constant threat of execution create an environment of extreme emotional and mental distress. “Many death row inmates suffer from mental illness, and the isolation on death row often exacerbates their condition. Older inmates suffer from increasing physical disabilities, rendering their ultimate execution a particularly demeaning action” (Death Penalty Information Center,2019). These individuals often spend years, if not decades, in solitary confinement, isolated from human contact and subjected to psychological torment. They face the constant uncertainty of their fate, living with the knowledge that their lives may be abruptly taken away.

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According to Department of corrections and rehabilitation there is approximately 2.3 million adult offenders currently detained and which consist of 316,229 prisoners which are overseen by correctional officers on an ongoing basis costing on an average of $49 per prisoner, additionally their current budget is approximately $11 billion, which is distributed between 33 state prisons, 40 camps, as well as 12 community correctional facilities. Furthermore, the male population is 93%, 7% are females, Hispanics represent 39%, 29% are African American, and 26% are Caucasian, moreover, there are 24,000 inmates currently serving life sentences and 680 on death row, as well as the 124,000 parolees of which there is a 51% return ratio for parole violations, thus resulting in prison over-crowding.

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(qtd Rachels EMP 140) Obviously, people who commit heinous crimes deserve to be punished and society deserves justice and protection. However, it can be said that justice is not served by taking the life of the perpetrator. It can also be said that there is more retribution in a criminal living out a life sentence in incarceration as each day of their life they pay for their

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With the current statistics available it is hard to determine the number of individuals who are currently incarcerated and the length of there prison sentences will go past their natural lives. The Unites States justice system needs to take a hard look at these figures and look at everything holistically to see if it is financially viable to continue to house a population of people that will eventually die anyways. It may be a more economically beneficial option for America to move forward with the end of these peoples lives than just continue to waste money supporting these lives that where deemed to be no longer a viable part of society. Of the people serving life sentences there is a large number of them who should have received the death penalty instead they were offered plea deals to plead guilty instead of waste time and money on a trail. We need to go back through on all these cases where the person has already pleaded guilty in order to not receive the death penalty and let them know the deal has changed and now there are scheduled to be executed.

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