Shirley Crooks V. Simmons Case

In 1993 17 year old Christopher Simmons and two friends, John Tessmer and Charles Benjamin had planned to murder Shirley Crook. Then night of the murder one of the men , John Tessmer dropped out but Simmons and Benjamin carried out the plot. Around 2 am the men broke into Crook’s house through a window and committed robbery. Later, the two men entered Crook’s home and tied up the victim and covered her head. The suspects drove Crook to a nearby State park and threw her body into the Meramec river. Shirley Crooks husband, Steven Crook arrived at the house on September 9th and reported his wife missing. The same day the Steven Crook reported his wife missing a man fishing on the Meramec river had found the dead body of the victim. The day following the discovery of Shirley Crooks body the police had learned of Simmons bragging about the killing. The police then went to the high school that simmons attended and arrested him. The police had arrested Simmons and wanted to ask him some questions, Simmons agreed to cooperate with police and answer some questions. It would not be long before Simmons confessed about the murder of Shirley Crook. The case was then brought to trial in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Missouri with loads of evidence against Simmons.
When the case opened at the Circuit Court of

Virginia Supreme Court case (2002) was a pivotal case when deciding Roper v Simmons three years later. Daryl Renard Atkins abducted, robbed, and then killed a Airman near Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. During the hearing Atkins was sentenced to death, but that decision was questioned because of Atkins being “mentally retarded”. Atkins mental state brought up the question of whether or not it is fair to execute an individual with a mental disorder, thus bringing into question the eighth amendment. The court ruled in a 6-3 vote that the execution of a mentally retarded person does fall as “cruel and unusual punishment” under the eighth