Life Without Parole Research Paper

A New York City man named Anthony brown has spent 15 years of his life in prison or on parole. Brown was 16 years old when he was first incarcerated for selling drugs in 2001. Brown has been incarcerated four times for drug crime and parole violations. He’s currently released form prison and is trying to get off of parole. Browns time in the parole system has been much like the process of being revoked and restored.

2016 that states that death punishments falls under unusual punishment which violates the “Eighth Amendment of the Constitution”. The evidence is compelling but other approaches could be taken

The issue in this case is whether the imposition of the sentence of death for the crime of murder under the law of Georgia violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Gregg argued that the sentencing procedure allows for arbitrary grants of mercy that reflects a misinterpretation and ignores the reviewing authority of the Georgia Supreme Court to determine whether each death sentence is proportional to other sentencing for similar crimes. Gregg was pleading for a life sentence instead of death. Georgia argued that the statute did not constitute a cruel and unusual punishment and did not violate the Eighth and Fourteenth amendments. Georgia also argued and proved that there must be specific jury findings as to the circumstances of the crime to determine whether the death sentence was fair for the case.

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.)

On June 25, 2012, the Supreme court ruled that juveniles who committed murder could not be sentenced for to life in prison. Their reasoning was that it violated the 8th Amendment, that stated the ban of cruel and unusual punishment. However, that is not the only reason to have juveniles not be sentenced for life. I agree with the supreme court’s decision because juveniles who commit crime can be coming from an unhealthy background, their brain is not fully developed, and their characters are still in formation. Greg Ousley murdered his parents on February 27, 1993 with a rifle gun that he was found in his house.

“‘Death sentences represent less than one-tenth of 1% of prison sentences in the United States…,’” (Von Drehle, 9). Furthermore, death row is just a small fraction of the criminal justice system and can not be based on that alone. For instance, what many don't take into account is the justice systems allows for many states, such as the populous state of New York, to ban the death penalty. (state laws, p1)

Angela Davis mentioned it I had not thought about life without the possibly of parole as a second death sentence. However, she is right because either way the person dies in prison. Also, she talked about how African American males are incarcerated more than any other group of people, but the incarceration rate for women is increasing. Dr. Davis wants an end to incarceration as we know it, which I completely agree with; however, not having a prison system is not the answer in my opinion.

Supreme Court reviewed the cases of Evan Miller and Kuntrell Jackson who were both convicted with committing capital murder at the age of fourteen. Firstly, all defendants are allowed to argue that their punishment violated the Eighth Amendment. According to www.verdict.justia.com, “ On a theory that Miller and Jackson were entitled to individualized sentencing, they were denied the opportunity to argue the relevance of these mitigating factors to their proper punishment in an attempt to persuade their judges that the sentence of LWOP was too harsh.” Specifically, this indicates that the accused people were not allowed to argue that their punishment had violated the Eighth Amendment. Secondly, age matters when deciding the consequence for the convicted criminals.

The eighth amendment is a protection for American citizens against “cruel and unusual punishment” and “excessive bail”. Roper v Simmons also violates the fourteenth amendment which addresses rights and citizenship, this became another hurdle in the case. The fourteenth amendment states “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” , in Roper v Simmons the Missouri Supreme Court was close to depriving Christopher Simmons of his life. Since Roper V Simmons states have reevaluated their minimum age for death penalty, 30 states do not even have a death penalty or capital punishment anymore. Cornell Law has also argued that because of Simmons’s age he was mentally incompetent, at the age at 17 Simmons is not eligible to “drink, serve on juries or even see certain movies…” , this was very intimidating and scary to Simmons’s prosecutor.

Life without parole is examined as a form of death penalty, namely, death by incarceration as distinct from death by execution. Original interviews with a sample of prisoners (person that are condemned prisoners and serving a life-without-parole type of sanction) and prison officers are used to develop a picture of the experience of life under sentence of death by incarceration. In many instances is can be argued that offenders sentenced to death by incarceration do not pose a special danger to others in the prison world or in the free world and that the suffering they experience is comparable to the suffering endured by condemned prisoners. Life without parole thus emerges as a viable alternative to the capital punishment.

Have you ever wondered what serving life in prison without parole would be like ? Life in prison without parole can and will be harsh. It has been proven that people sentenced to life in prison have been condemned to die in prison. Nobody who has been sentenced to life without parole has been released on parole in any state, city or, country. People sentenced to life without parole actually remain in prison for the rest of their lives and die in prison.

To illustrate, this shows that accused people cannot be given punishments that are larger than the size of their crime. Lastly, death sentences are allowed, but must follow certain guidelines. The article from www.annenbergclassroom.org notes, “Except for a brief period in the 1970s, the death penalty has not been considered by the U.S. Supreme Court to be cruel and unusual punishment. As a result, Eighth Amendment challenges to the death penalty have focused on the methods used to carry out executions, whether certain offenders (for example, juveniles or the mentally retarded) should be subject to the sentence and whether death sentences are decided in a fair manner and by an impartial

Supreme Court has redefined (along with not defining) the Eighth Amendment and “Cruel and Unusual Punishment”. Moreover, the court has intervened in many cases where the death penalty was applied injustice. The Cruel and unusual punishment doctrine has not been well developed. The Supreme Court’s primary concentration has been on the word “cruel” when determining what punishments are prohibited.

According to Department of corrections and rehabilitation there is approximately 2.3 million adult offenders currently detained and which consist of 316,229 prisoners which are overseen by correctional officers on an ongoing basis costing on an average of $49 per prisoner, additionally their current budget is approximately $11 billion, which is distributed between 33 state prisons, 40 camps, as well as 12 community correctional facilities. Furthermore, the male population is 93%, 7% are females, Hispanics represent 39%, 29% are African American, and 26% are Caucasian, moreover, there are 24,000 inmates currently serving life sentences and 680 on death row, as well as the 124,000 parolees of which there is a 51% return ratio for parole violations, thus resulting in prison over-crowding.

With the current statistics available it is hard to determine the number of individuals who are currently incarcerated and the length of there prison sentences will go past their natural lives. The Unites States justice system needs to take a hard look at these figures and look at everything holistically to see if it is financially viable to continue to house a population of people that will eventually die anyways. It may be a more economically beneficial option for America to move forward with the end of these peoples lives than just continue to waste money supporting these lives that where deemed to be no longer a viable part of society. Of the people serving life sentences there is a large number of them who should have received the death penalty instead they were offered plea deals to plead guilty instead of waste time and money on a trail. We need to go back through on all these cases where the person has already pleaded guilty in order to not receive the death penalty and let them know the deal has changed and now there are scheduled to be executed.