In the cases of ‘Coker V. Georgia’ and ‘Kennedy V. Louisiana’ a very important question was brought up; does the death penalty constitute for cruel and unusual punishment in regards to the rape of an adult woman or child? Most people can attest to rape being one of the most egregious criminal acts, but how do we keep a fair punishment, and not lose sight of the reasoning in our eighth amendment in such cases?
Case Information In the case of Coker V. Georgia, a man by the name of Ehrlich Coker, who was already imprisoned for multiple cases of rape among many other offenses, escaped prison and raped again along with several other unsavory acts. He was sentenced to death for his post-escape rape.
The Supreme Court however ruled that the death penalty was grossly
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Louisiana; the eighth amendment provides that punishments should not be barbaric in nature or excessive in duration, and that punishment should not be grossly disproportionate to the crime nor should it be needlessly severe. In accordance with this the fourteenth amendment was also used in the Coker V. Georgia case, specifically where it is stated that no state shall deprive a person of life.
Previous Criminal Record: Coker V. Georgia Regarding Coker V. Georgia, Ehrlich Coker was previously convicted of, and serving multiple sentences for, aggravated assault, kidnapping, rape and murder when he escaped from prison. Once apprehended, he was charged with escape, tried and convicted for armed robbery, motor vehicle theft, kidnapping, and rape.
Previous Criminal Record: Kennedy V. Louisiana
In regard to the case of Kennedy V. Louisiana, there are no known previous convictions; however his victim’s cousin was called to stand as a witness, where she stated that she had also been sexually assaulted, multiple times, by Kennedy.
Determining Punishment The death penalty, in both cases, was determined to be unconstitutional due to the
Worcester v. Georgia By Sydney Stephenson Worcester v. Georgia is a case that impacted tribal sovereignty in the United States and the amount of power the state had over native American territories. Samuel Worcester was a minister affiliated with the ABCFM (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions). In 1827 the board sent Worcester to join its Cherokee mission in Georgia. Upon his arrival, Worcester began working with Elias Boudinot, the editor of the Cherokee Phoenix (the first Native American newspaper in the United States) to translate religious text into the Cherokee language. Over time Worcester became a close friend of the Cherokee leaders and advised them about their political and legal rights under the Constitution and federal-Cherokee treaties.
Tennessee, the use of the victim’s impact statement does not violate the Eighth Amendment. The courts allow a defendant to use mitigating factors in order to describe the circumstances surrounding the incident in question therefore the prosecution should be prevented. because it is mitigating the defendant’s factor to describe the circumstance of the incident in question therefore the prosecution should not be bar from using mitigating factors such as victim impact statements. Since the victim’s impact statement did not violate the Eighth Amendment, Payne’s case led to the overruling of prior case law. The court ruled that since there are no restriction place of mitigating by the defendant there should be no use for the prosecution.
Gregg v. Georgia Ware, 1 Gregg v. Georgia: Death Penalty Cheyenne Ware Liberty High School 3AB ? Gregg v. Georgia, decided July 2, 1976, was a case that has influenced a lot of cases after it. This is due to the fact it defined it the constitutionality of the death penalty and how extreme of an offence one must commit in order to receive the death penalty, as well as overturning the decision of Furman v. Georgia (Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2015 A) (Cornell University, 2015). In Furman v. Georgia, Furman was in the process of robbing is home when a resident of the home noticed him.
The people charge him for all of these crimes and he was found guilty by a jury in the Superior Court of Georgia. He was sentenced to death under the Georgia statutes that permitted capital punishment for aggravated crimes. Crimes committed before, convicted for murder a capital felony, moral corruption, and committing the crime after escaping jails were all aggravated factors. Coker appealed his sentencing to death for the rape charge stating that sentencing death for rape violated the eight Amendment. The eight amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, which means the punishment has to match the crime and can not be excessive in comparison to the crime
1 a. Louisiana law states that to get a legitimate name change in Louisiana, a candidate must present: a request to the court, no distribution is required. People who have a lawful offense conviction may change their name once the sentence has been fulfilled, with the exemption that people who have a lawful offense conviction for a vicious wrongdoing are not allowed to change their name. (La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 13:4751 to 13:4755).
Henry Furman murdered someone while robbing their home and was sentenced to death. He appealed his punishment and this court case went all the way to the supreme court. He won the case in the supreme court now there are regulations for death sentences. Although he won his case, I strongly agree with Georgia and that punishment for murder should be a death sentence. There are many reasons I believe so.
Williams vs. North Carolina (1942) The Williams v. North Carolina case is a Supreme Court case in which the court decided that the federal government determines divorce and marriage statuses between state lines. It casted doubt over the validity of thousands of interstate divorces. Mr. Williams and Ms. Hendrix, who were both married, moved to Nevada for six weeks to become citizens of the state, and filed for divorce from their spouses. Their spouses, Carrie Wyke and Thomas Hendrix, were unaware that the divorces were being filed.
In fact, rape should’ve been considered a capital crime in this instance. I believe that the supreme Court was completely wrong in their decision to overturn Coker’s death sentence. Because of this, I would have agreed with the lower court's’ decision, and ruled that Coker should have been sentenced to
Additionally, the Court looked into capital punishment practices in other countries. At the time they began hearing the case, the United States was the only country that still had the death penalty as an available sentencing option for juveniles who were found guilty of murder (Arvin, 2005). Justice Scalia, Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice Thomas, and Justice O’Connor had a dissenting opinion of the case (Williams, 2005). The dissent was primarily questioning if there was now a national consensus that juveniles would not be sentenced to death.
claiming that Kennedy was not the offender, Kennedy was arrested for the crime of rape. While the state had drawn both Kennedy’s backstory and L.H.’s personal experiences, they had came to the conclusion that Kennedy was the obvious offender. One of the reasons for this is due to the fact that Kennedy had made two phone calls, during the morning of the rape. 1 When L.H. had returned home on June 22, 1998, she told her mother for the first time that Kennedy had raped her. Therefore, confirming the previous suspicions of investigators and making the arrest of Kennedy more reliable.
The most important issue that must be addressed in this case is the principle of the “evolving standards of decency” and the uses of a national consensus. The “evolving standards of decency” were developed by Trop v. Dulles and have been implemented in one way or another in all of the precedents dealing with “cruel and unusual” punishment. It is important to treat these principles as an important aspect of “cruel and unusual” punishment jurisprudence, therefore turning from these set of principles would be foolish and a disregard for every precedent. However, it is important to acknowledge that each case satisfies the standards by using a different method; some use the presence or lack of state legislature as a judgment of consensus while others look at foreign countries.
The Civil Rights Movement happened because the African American citizens finally stood and fought for their rights. The Civil Rights Movement took place in the 1960s when many cases were brought up to the Supreme Court that led to desegregating a place or even an action. One of the most important cases was the Bailey v. Patterson case. The case’s hearing, Bailey v. Patterson case, took place on February 26th, 1962 which gave the Civil Rights Movement a huge boost. (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com)The Bailey v. Patterson case was between Samuel Bailey and a Mississippi general attorney.
Kennedy states that he has an alibi from midnight until four a.m. where his house was on fire and he was not present at his home at the time of the fire, also some of his personal effects and a stove where removed prior of the fire. While investigating the start of the fire they discovered kerosene was found on the floor of many of the rooms, also that there was kerosene poured around the hot plate and it was left on. With all of this information from the investigation the police did and the information from the fire investigator gave them all the evidence to arrest Henry Kennedy for arson. Issues There was an issue with if the alibi was solid alibi, and also if he was actually able to be at the site when
It’s Not working out. By:Taija Jones. The 8th amendment says “Excessive bail shall not be required, Nor excessive fines imposed, Nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” . With that being said if the 8th amendment applies for cruel punishments of death penalties then why is it still happening.
Although, the term “cruel and unusual punishment” is constantly changing as society develops. For example when the amendment was first made cruel and unusual punishment at the time was being burned at the stake or being tortured. Today cruel and unusual punishment can include the death penalty and it was not until a little after the 1970s when the death penalty was considered a part of cruel and unusual punishment. The main use of the eighth amendment in court is for cruel and unusual punishment. Some cases that use the eighth amendment are the Roper v. Simmons, Hudson v. McMillian, and the Woodson v. North