Research Paper: Capital Punishment Capital punishment is one of the most controversial and talked-about topics in the United States today. It is an issue that is not explicitly mentioned in our constitution, so states have been left to interpret the law. As of April 2017, 32 states in the US legally allow the death penalty. Of the 18 states that have banned it, the most recent was Maryland in 2013. The topic is so controversial that the Supreme Court has gotten involved many times, deciding on more cases that have to do with capital punishment than most other subjects. People disagree on many aspects of the death penalty for several different reasons like moral and religious differences. When considering capital punishment, people’s opinions …show more content…
One of the first times was in 1947 in the Supreme Court case, Francis v. Resweber. Here, Willie Francis was convicted of murder in Louisiana and sentenced to death by electric chair. During his execution, the chair malfunctioned and the current that passed through Francis didn’t kill him. Francis argued that re-execution would be cruel and unusual punishment, against his constitutional right. In a 5-4 decision, the court disagreed with Willie, arguing that the equipment failure was not the wanton infliction of pain and that the Eighth Amendment refers to the method of cruelty and not the cruelty that is part of the suffering (Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. …show more content…
In 1972, one of the most iconic court cases about capital punishment was decided on: Furman v. Georgia. It considered both the constitutionality of the death penalty and its adverse effects on minority groups. The controversy of this decision was backed up by more than 200 pages of concurrences and dissents, culminating in a one page decision. In this decision, the Court nullified all existing capital punishment laws and pardoned everybody on death row. To reinstate the death penalty, states had to satisfy the Eighth Amendment by removing all “discriminatory” and “arbitrary” effects. In a 5-4 decision, this case was so controversial that none of the five justices making a majority joined the opinion of the others; this means that there was no stated opinion of the court
On November 21, 1973, Troy Leon Gregg and his companion robbed and murdered Fred Edward Simmons and Bob Durwood Moore, two innocent people who were giving them rides. Gregg was convicted for his actions and was given the death penalty. He argued that the sentence was violating his eighth amendment which is “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (U.S. Const. amend. VIII.)
In the case, Kennedy v. Louisiana, Patrick Kennedy was convicted of aggravated assault. Specifically, the raping of his eight-year-old stepdaughter. The capital punishment for rape of a child under twelve years of age in the state of Louisiana was a death sentence. 1 Evidence: At 9:18 A.M., on March 2, 1998, Patrick Kennedy had called 911.
Our Constitution has long required the criminally accused to be tried by their peers. The question before us today is whether Florida’s death sentencing scheme violates the Sixth Amendment in light of the decision in Ring v. Arizona., 536 U.S. 584 (2002). We hold that it does violate the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. I
And while standing before the Supreme Court on January 17th, 1972, he persistently argued that the death penalty in the state of Georgia did, in fact, violate the United States Constitution. Amsterdam stated how the 8th Amendment discusses that the government is not allowed to constitute cruel and unusual punishment
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 Eighth Amendment of the Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, stating “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Although the Eighth Amendment is typically used in relation to the discussion of the death penalty or the evaluation of a long prison sentence for a nonviolent crime, in 2011 the Supreme Court used the cruel and unusual punishment portion of the amendment to assess Brown v. Plata, a case which determined whether or not the Eighth Amendment protection is violated if prisoners are deprived of basic sustenance. In the case of Brown v. Plata, 46,000 prisoners were to be released from a federal correction facility as a result of unprecedented overcrowding within a
But are we in the future to be prevented from inflicting these punishments because they are cruel? If a more lenient mode of correcting vice and deterring others from the commission of it would be invented, it would be very prudent in the Legislature to adopt it; but until we have some security that this will be done, we ought not to be restrained from making necessary laws by any declaration of this kind’ “ (Bomboy). In other words, Livermore was arguing that all citizens who commit horrible crime do deserve severe punishments for the crimes that they commit, and until the government figures out a way to place restrictions and guidelines on the penalties that we believe are morally proper to give, then they cannot hold back from reprimanding those citizens. Consequently, The Founding Fathers created the Eighth Amendment to be intended for further generations to interpret the meaning of “cruel” and “unusual” over time (Donnell). The amendment was then ratified in 1791 nevertheless, the Eighth Amendment and the death penalty is still highly debated today because the differences in interpretations
The Rules of rights from the 8th Amendment ‘’Unless this right to bail before trial is preserved the presumption of innocence secured only after centuries of struggle, would lose its meaning. The U.S supreme court has ruled that this is a Amendment cruel and unusual punishment cause also applies to the states. The court concluded that the death penalty as a punishment for murder does not itself
Breaking the law was no joke back in colonial times. Punishment were extremely harsh. The convict will be punished by physical pain or sometimes death. Do to the poor judgment from the court 's most of the accused were innocent. Even the defendants of the accused were punished, if the accused were proven guilty.
Texas Death Penalty Controversy Introduction Texas has a long history of using the death penalty as a form of punishment for serious criminal offenses. The state has carried out the most executions of any state in the United States since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, with a total of 570 executions as of September 2021. This paper will examine the history of the death penalty in Texas, the process of imposing and carrying out a death sentence, and the controversies surrounding the use of the death penalty in the state's criminal justice system. History of the Death Penalty in Texas Texas has a long history of using the death penalty as a form of punishment. The state carried out its first execution in 1819 when George Brown
In 1972, the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in the Furman vs. Georgia case because it was administered arbitrarily. Because of this, many states had to rewrite their death penalty laws in an attempt to only use it on the worst of the worst. In the Gregg vs. Georgia case in 1976, the state decided that there must be an official list of aggravating factors which would determine whether or not the person could be sentenced to the death penalty. They failed to mention how many aggravating factors there could be, however. Arizona’s first list of aggravating factors only had five factors.
Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is a legal process in which a person is put to death as a punishment for a crime by the government of a nation. The United States is in the minority group of nations that uses the death penalty. There are thirty-three states that allow capital punishment and seventeen states that abolished it (Death Penalty Information Center). The morality of the death penalty has been debated for many years. Some people want capital punishment to be abolished due to how it can cost a lot more than life imprisonment without parole, how they think it is immoral to kill, and how innocent people can be put to death.
The death penalty is a controversial issue that has been debated in the United States for a long period of time. In our own state of Texas, executing convicted criminals has become second nature. This is due to the fact that Texas has executed more people than any other state in the United States since 1976. So why does Texas lead the United States in executions? There are many reasons and factors that has led to this point.
Another issue that was discussed is the inequality of death penalty in practice. There have been serious issues with racial discrimination. For reference in cases with white victims and black defendants convictions occurred twenty two percent of the time while with black victims and white defendants with percentage dropped to a measly three
The Death Penalty Imported from the United Kingdom, the exercise of the death penalty has been recorded as far back in the United States as 1608. Since then, the subject has constantly been contested, with major anti-capital punishment victories occurring as early as 1974, when Pennsylvania outlawed capital punishment for 1st degree murder, 1888, when Rhode Island outlawed all capital punishment, and continuing into our modern time where the death penalty is now outlawed in 18 states. It is, however, important to also note that the reliance on the death penalty has continued to evolve as execution styles have become utilized and modernized in most of the remaining 38 states. With such an extensive history, it becomes clear that capital punishment remains an issue that evokes passionate argument from both sides. Seeking to comprehend the moral values being promoted by both sides, we will identify shared values, and employ them as a means of achieving a common ground for the creation of creative solutions.