Supreme Trial Of Christopher Simmons

Facts: Christopher Simmons, was a 17 year old, who plotted to commit burglary and murder. He planned with his friends, Benjamin and Tessmer, to break into a woman’s home, tie her up then throw her into the river. He planned it out. He broke into Shirley Cooks home, a lady who was involved in a car accident. While Simmons was committing the crime, he tied her up and threw her into the river.

Simmons still believed that he would not serve hard time due to his young age. He openly admitted to committing the murder and had even agreed to act out the said crime on video tape for the police. He did not know that this could be used as evidence against him later on in trial. The case eventually made its way to trial. Simmons lawyer pleaded with the jury to not agree upon the death penalty due to Simmons young age and clean criminal record.

To start off my case, do you really want to see a dead 16 year old be found guilty… after his own death? I know if I got a dead kid found guilty, I might not sleep too calmly at night, at least not for a while. At the moment, there isn’t any evidence proving that he is not guilty, so let’s shed some light on this situation and get some background on what happened. As you all know, Johnny Cade, the suspected murderer, is part of a street gang known as the Greasers. The “victim” Robert Sheldon is part of the rival gang called Socs.

Christopher Simmons at age 17 (1993) purposed a plan to murder Shirley Crook. To do so, he brought two other younger friends (Tessmer and Benjamin) into the murder plan to help him. The plan was to commit burglary and murder by breaking and entering, tying up the victim, and throwing her off a bridge to her death. He told both his friends that they would “get away with it” because they were minors. The three met up in the middle of the night to complete the plan; however Tessmer dropped out leaving Benjamin and Simmons, and the two still went through with the crime.

The jury only took 35 minutes to convict Sullivan. Even though there was no physical or biological evidence linking Sullivan to the crime, as well as the lack of testimony from the victim, who was unable to identify her attacker; poor Sullivan was sentenced to life without parole (Agyepong, children left behind

He also tried to reach for a deputy’s gun, in which he again was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Simmons kept waiving his rights to appeal, to try to get away with being “insane”. This shows that he was for sure competent enough to think about those things, so what exactly was wrong with this man? Then finally in 1990, with Simmons accepting his fate, Bill Clinton signed his death warrant for June 25, 1990. This was the fastest sentence to death ever since the death penalty was put into

The frontal tubes can hinder the violent passions, rash actions, and regulate teens emotions throughout the years. Meaning that teenagers aren’t adults yet. Another reason why teens shouldn’t be charge as an adult is because teens commit crimes without thinking what they are doing and they’re still kids. Teenagers make mistakes because they are young and stupid. Some of the teenagers don’t deserve to go to jail and get charge as an adult.

In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that it is immoral to give juveniles life sentences, even if they commit a crime as serious as murder, because it is a cruel and unusual punishment. This has been an issue in America as teenagers are often treated as adults in court due to a belief that their crimes warrant a harsh punishment. Many believe that these kids should not be given such major sentences because they are still immature and do not have the self control that adults do. I agree that juveniles do not deserve life sentences because they put less thought and planning into these crimes and they often are less malicious than adults. The article “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” explains that the teenagers lose brain tissue that is responsible for self control and impulses (Thompson 7).

Rhetorical Precis “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” The author Paul Thompson in the article, “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains,” explains that teen brains losses brain tissues in the areas of controlling impulses, risk-taking, and self-control, showing that teens are not yet adults, and the legal system (court system) should treat them as such. Thompson supports his argument by first describing a crime that a young teen did, Brazill of thirteen years killed his teacher on a middle-school without real intentions to kill him, but the jurors found guilty Brazill and they treat him as an adult in the sense of punishment. Many people protested against this unfair action saying that "A child is not a man." He then shows some searches about

In the novel MONSTER, written by Walter Dean Myers, tells the story of two men under the age of 25 on trial for felony murder. Steve Harmon is a 16 year old boy who is accused of being the lookout to a robbery that James King, a 22 year old and his friend Bobo Evans were planning. James King is accused of being the one that ripped Alguinaldo Nesbit’s gun from him and used it to shoot and kill Mr.Nesbit. Prosecutor Sandra Petrocelli works to convince the jury that their age isn’t an excuse that a man died at their hands. Kathy O’brien and Asa Briggs both work as the attorneys to prove that one of these men are innocent.

In the beginning years of adulthood most would think they've finally reached a mature age so that they'd make more appropriate decisions in life. New research shows most young adults still have underdeveloped brains, "The predicted age of fully development is determined to be 25" Says Justin McNaull author of "Age of Responsibility". Even some cannot mature in time for adulthood it's based on how developed your brain really is, this gives an unfair advantage to those who process things much faster and in this case can mean life or death. Immaturity is said to be popular in kids, teens, and young adults, but why adults? This may be because there still transitioning from the brain functionality of a teen, many people disagree by claiming alcohol

People will oppose to this law, but at the age of 18 an adolescent's brain is not fully developed yet. Underage drinking is a common action in today’s society. What kids do not know is the effect that underage drinking has on their brain. Since the brain is not fully developed at the age of 18, drinking

In the next decade, I believe the “pendulum” of the juvenile justice system will continue to swing towards rehabilitation. The juvenile court's main focus was to use a more rehabilitation approach instead of restoring to incarceration since juveniles are just kids. With this approach, the juvenile court puts an emphasis on the whole child instead of the offense, used parens patriae as its foundation, discretion of the juvenile's behaviors, and has the judge be the sole determining factor of the juvenile's faith (Cauffman, 2018). Throughout history, it is evident that the pendulum tends to swing back and forth between rehabilitation and punishment, especially within the past century. In fact, cases such as In re Gault and in re Winship, have

Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson developed Routine Activity Theory. Routine Activity Theory is where children commit delinquent or criminal acts when there are no capable guardians, when they find suitable targets and limited activities for them to take part in. Children ultimately weigh in the risks and decide whether or not they commit a crime. A person can be influenced by the interaction of these three variables: finding targets, not having guardians around and the presence of people willing to commit a crime (Welsh and Siegel,64).

Introduction We have 15 and 16 year olds not able to drive cars, yet we will classify them as adults and lock them away in prison for life without parole. New aged teens have brains that are growing and developing constantly. In fact, in adolescence the brain does a lot of pruning, or rather throwing out information that is not being exercised, which consequently loses brain tissue in the areas that control impulses, self-control and risk-taking. Even with this considered, teens are given no mercy and will be locked away before they even finish puberty. However, many see certain crimes too punishable and do not wish to coddle a kid and let them get away with things such as murder.