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Criminal law in juvenile issues
Juvenile Crime Issues in Today’s Criminal Justice System
Juvenile crime short note
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Thompson v. Oklahoma, one of the most controversial and still talked about today almost 30 years after the decision. William Payne Thompson, a 15 year old teenager who participated in a brutal murder of and kidnapping along with three other men and was later convicted of first degree murder and was later sentenced to death. The man that they murdered was Thompson’s brother in law named Charles Keene, who was married to his sister, Vicki, Keene was accused of beating both Thompson and Vicki. The three other men who helped Thompson were later tried separately and were convicted and sentenced to death, but Thompson was treated as a juvenile offender because of his age. Thompson was a teenager who had different encounters with the law up to that point in Grady County, Oklahoma.
Thompson was tried as a juvenile offender until the Oklahoma attorney court general’s office filed a petition asking for Thompson to be tried as an adult for the crime and the court eventually agreed. The main two arguments for the plaintiff were that juveniles historically have been been less culpable for crimes than adults because of less intelligence
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and experience. The second main argument for the plaintiff would be that the execution of someone under the age of 16 at the time for a crime would be terribly wrong to the society’s standards at the time. There were also two major arguments for the defendant with one of them being that Thompson was tried as an adult according to the Oklahoma state law. The second major argument for the defendant was to state that a death sentence for an adult convicted of a murder was “atrocious or cruel” is not “cruel and unusual punishment” when imposed on a minor. Thompson was convicted for his actions by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. The case then as appealed to the supreme court with the justices at the time whose names were, William J.
Brennan, Jr. Byron White, Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun, John P. Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy. The final decision of the case 5-3 in favor of William Payne Thompson to overturn his death sentence on June 29, 1988. The justices that voted the majority of the vote were Thurgood Marshall, Harry Andrew Blackmun, and William Joseph Brennan Jr. The majority opinion was written by John Paul Stevens, who stated that the opinion was based on the fact that the justices felt that the punishment violated the eighth amendment. Many people at that time were very relieved of the decision because they knew that the crimes he did were wrong but hey also believed that giving him the death sentence was very
wrong. The main reason why the the Supreme court decided to overturn the death penalty was because of the eighth amendment which prohibits the federal government from using cruel and unusual punishment on criminals. So because of that the state of Oklahoma has to obey by that amendment under the due “ Due Process Clause” of the Fourteenth amendment. The other reason why the supreme court decided to overturn the decision was because Thompson was a minor, which means that the death penalty should not apply to hi de to his young age.Along with those two reasons why there was also a final reason why they had that reason which is because the death penalty is something that is very hard to give to an adult, but is absolutely wrong to give to a child. The importance of this case would be that this case adds to the eighth and fourteenth amendment by adding more regulations and rules for state and federal courts to sentence people to the death penalty to make close to impossible sentence someone to it. This case was also important because it show that sentencing a person especially a child is completely wrong and is considered murder in some people’s perspective. This case is still relevant today because there are still cases today where people are still being or being tried for the death sentence, which is completely wrong in my opinion. For example, today there are 62 people in 26 states that are on death row and are most likely being charged with the death penalty.
Within the last five years, violent offenses by children have increased 68 percent, crimes such as: murder, rape, assault, and robbery. Honestly, with these figures, it is not surprising at all that the Juveniles Courts focus less on the children in danger, and focus more on dangerous children. This in fact is most likely the underlying reasoning behind juveniles being tried as adults by imposing harsher and stiffer sentences. However, these policies fail to recognize the developmental differences between young people and
In the Lexington, Kentucky a drug operation occurred at an apartment complex. Police officers of Lexington, Kentucky followed a suspected drug dealer into an apartment complex. The officers smelled marijuana outside the door of one of the apartments, as they knocked loudly the officers announced their presence. There were noises coming from the inside of the apartment; the officers believed that the noises were as the sound of destroying evidence. The officers stated that they were about to enter the apartment and kicked the apartment door in in order to save the save any evidence from being destroyed. Once the officer enters the apartment; there the respondent and others were found. The officers took the respondent and the other individuals that were in the apartment into custody. The King and the
The decision was a 6-3 decision. The Justices that agreed with the ruling of the court were Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, White, Stevens, and O’Connor. The Justices that did not agree were Powell, Berger, and Rehnquist.
In 1971 in Mobile County Alabama the School Board created a state statute that set aside time at the beginning of each day for silent ’meditation’ (statute 6-1-20), and in 1981 they added another statute 16-1-20.1 which set aside a minute for ‘silent prayer’ as well. In addition to these, in 1982 the Mobile County School Board enacted statute 16-1-20.2, which specified a prayer that teachers could lead ‘willing’ students in “From henceforth, any teacher or professor in any public educational institution within the State of Alabama, recognizing that the Lord God is one, at the beginning of any homeroom or any class, may pray, may lead willing students in prayer, or may lead the willing students in the following prayer to God… “ (Jaffree By and Through Jaffree v. James). Ishmael Jaffree was the father of three students, Jamael Aakki Jaffree, Makeba Green, and Chioke Saleem Jaffree, who attended a school in Mobile County Alabama. Jaffree complained that his children had been pressured into participating in religious activities by their teachers and their peers, and that he had requested that these activities stopped. When the school did nothing about Jaffree’s complaints he filed an official complaint with the Mobile County School Board through the United States District Courts. The original complaint never mentioned the three state statutes that involved school prayer. However, on June 4, 1982 Jaffree changed his complaint. He now wanted to challenge the constitutionality of statutes 16-1-20, 16-1-20.1 and 16-1-20.2, and motioned for a preliminary injunction. The argument against these state laws was that they were an infringement of the Establishment Clause within the First Amendment of the Constitution, which states that Congr...
On September 4, 1958, Dollree Mapp’s was convicted in the Cuyahoga County Ohio Court of Common Pleas (Mapp v. Ohio - 367 U.S. 643 (1961)). On March 29, 1961, Dollree Mapp v. Ohio was brought before the Supreme Court of the United States after an incident with local Ohio law enforcement and a search of Dollree Mapp 's home (Mapp v. Ohio 367 U.S. 643 (1961)). In the Bill of Rights, the Fourth Amendment protects and prohibits all persons from unreasonable searches and seizures. However, can evidence obtained through a search that was in violation of a person’s Fourth Amendment rights still be admitted in a state criminal proceeding? This is the issue that will be thoroughly examined in the landmark case of Dollree Mapp v. the State of Ohio (henceforth
A 12 year old stole money from a lady’s wallet that was stored in a locker at the time it was taken. Samuel Winship, the defendant was charged with an act of delinquency. If Samuel was charged as an adult the crime would have be larceny. A New York Family court judge convicted Samuel on a preponderance of evidence, which at the time was all that was necessary according to New York State Statute. At the time of the trial a juvenile in the state of New York was at least seven years old, but younger than 16. Samuel was 12, which by law made him a juvenile that could be charged with an act of delinquency.
Most Americans would claim a cop killer should be put to death which is what Scott D Cheever will face if he loses in the Supreme Court of the United States. Scott D Cheever and the state of Kansas argued before Supreme Court of the United States on October 16, 2013. The question posed before the court was when a criminal defendant affirmatively introduces expert testimony that he lacked the requisite mental state to commit capital murder of a law enforcement officer due to the alleged temporary and long-term effects of the defendant’s methamphetamine use, does the state violate the defendant’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination by rebutting the defendant’s mental state defense with evidence from a court-ordered mental evaluation of the defendant? The answer is no, the United States Supreme Court should reverse the decision of the Kansas Supreme Court because his fifth amendment’s rights were not violated.
The death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment which is strictly prohibited by the 8th amendment. William J. Brennan, Jr., JD, the Former US Supreme Court Justice, stated "Death is not only an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, in its finality, and in its enormity, but it serves no penal purpose more effectively than a less severe punishment; therefore the principle inherent in the Clause that prohibits pointless infliction of excessive punishment when less severe punishment can adequately achieve the same purposes invalidates the punishment." Gregg v Georgia [1976]. After committing a crime all criminals will face some form of punishment after the action. As the honorable William J. Brennan stated above, if you can still bring justice to the crimes committed why would one go the extra mile to take somebody’s life. This makes the death penalty look spiteful and cruel. Even though criminals should be fully held for their actions and are not worthy of supporting in a jail cell, these arguments do serve a purpose. It is against America’s ethics as a country that follows the Constitution to continue these executions and makes the US look hypocritical and inhumane when trying to be the role model for the
The use of juvenile records in adult criminal cases has been an ongoing, contested debate for many years. The effects of using one’s juvenile record in criminal court could be very damning. This week’s case summary is in regard to this very issue. In People v. Smith (1991), the defendant in this case, Ricky Smith stated that he was wrongly sentenced to the maximum length of 180 months under a statute which utilized his juvenile record to deem that he was a habitual offender. A closer examination follows.
In order to highlight all aspects of People v. Smith, 470 NW2d 70, Michigan Supreme Court (1991) we must first discuss the initial findings of the Michigan Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals decision was based on the precedence of two similar court cases that created discussion concerning the admission of juvenile records into adult trials. Following the Court of Appeals, the Michigan Supreme Court entered the final decision on Ricky Smith’s motion for resentencing. The Michigan Supreme Court also conducted a thorough examination of People v. Jones, People v. McFarlin, and People v. Price to determine the outcome of Smith’s motion to be resentenced.
The Texas vs Johnson case didn't drastically change the way people viewed things. Yes, the trial caused a lot of uproar, especially in Texas because of its patriotism, but it wasn't a case in which a law or amendment needed to be changed but rather was a case in which an amendment needed to be understood. Johnson’s act of burning the American flag in front of Dallas City Hall, in order to protest the Reagan administration during the Republican National Convention, was deemed as a sign of “symbolic” speech. Johnson’s act was ruled to be protected by the first amendment because speech was considered more than just the written word. The Supreme Court ruled it as such because of prior cases such as “Stromberg v. California” and “Tinker v. Des
John Geddes Lawrence (medical technologist, 60 years old) and Tyron Garner (barbecue vendor, 36 years old) were the petitioners in the case. They were found by the police at the moment they were having sex in the apartment of Lawrence in the Houston on September 17 in 1998 . They were arrested by the sheriff's deputy who entered the apartment which was not locked with the weapon and arrested both men.
1942 Skinner v. Oklahoma states that procreation is a fundamental constitutional right. In 2008 judge Charlie Baird sentenced Felicia Salazar to a probationary term of ten years for injury to her 19-month-old child. After the child’s father beat the adolescent Felicia failed to seek medical attention for her child which greatly disturbed the judge. This led to the judge adding a strange condition to the probationary conditions. Judge Baird told her she was not allowed to conceive or bear a child during her probationary sentence. In 2012 Judge Tim Boyle ordered 44-year-old Corey Curtis to stop procreating until he could support his nine children which were fathered by six different women. Owing $90,000 in child support he was conditioned to a three-year probationary judgement. The questions that surfaced from this controversial topic are; did judges Baird and Boyle’s
Justice Anthony Kennedy delivered the majority opinion of the Court in Roper, and he cited Thompson as precedent numerous times. For example, Kennedy wrote that the plurality in Thompson “observed that ‘[t]he conclusion that it would offend civilized standards of decency to execute a person who was less than 16 years old at the time of his or her offense is consistent with the views that have been expressed by respected professional organizations, by other nations that share our Anglo-American heritage, and by the leading members of the Western European community.’” Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 560 (2005) (citing Thompson v. Oklahoma 487 U.S. 815, 830 (1988)). By making this statement, the majority was providing evidence of widespread consensus
Due to the increased recognized differences between adults and juveniles in terms of needs and developmental capabilities, offender’s treatment differ depending on whether they are treated in an adult or juvenile court. In the adult court jurisdiction, public safety and retribution are the most salient tenets while in the juvenile courts the best the intentions are intended towards the best interest of the child focusing on rehabilitation. The best goals and objectives of the juvenile court sanctions aim at ensuring that the youth in trial at the juvenile court desists from delinquent behavior and thus easy to be reintegrated in the society once more. This fact is mainly achieved through offering the youth individualized case management programs