Roper v. Simmons, the facts, issues, and court holding on this cause is about a 17 year old boy who was arrested for murder. Christopher Simmons, who was 17 when he was arrested for the murder of Shirley Crook. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Christopher Simmons was accused of burglary and murder. Also it was said two of his friends helped him. One of the friends decline to proceeded but, was later was charged with conspiracy. Charges were dropped in exchange for his testimony against Simmons. Simmons and one of his friends went into the victim’s home and kidnapped her. The suspects bound the victim’s with duct tape and electrical cord. The victim mouth was covered in duct tape as well as her eyes. The victim was threw in the river. The victim’s husband return home from an overnight trip to discover his wife missing and home a mess. The same day the husband discovered his wife missing her body was found by some fishermen. Christopher Simmons’s was going around town boasting and bragging about how he killed the victim and robbed her. Simmons’s was later arrested where he attended high school. Simmons’s right was read to him and he refused his rights to an attorney and stated that he would answer any question that …show more content…
After the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed his conviction, his death sentence, and the denial of post-conviction relief, Simmons sought a writ of habeas corpus from the court, arguing that the prohibitions on “cruel and unusual punishment” imposed by article I section 21 of the Missouri Construction and by the Eight Amendment of the United States Construction bar the execution of an individual who committed a capital crime when under the age of eighteen” (EIGHTH AMENDMENT -- DEATH PENALTY -- MISSOURI SUPREME COURT HOLDS THAT THE JUVENILE DEATH PENALTY VIOLATES THE EIGHTH AMENDMENT. ,