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Death penalty and the criminal justice system
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On June 25, 1990 Ronald Simmons was executed after being sentenced to death, and put on death row in 1987 for murdering 14 members of his family, which included 8 juveniles, one acquaintance, and one stranger. Ronald Simmons case was one of the much simpler cases due to the fact that he gave up his right to appeal with the following oath "I, Ronald Gene Simmons, Sr., want it to be known that it is my wish and my desire that absolutely no action by anybody be taken to appeal or in any way change this sentence. It is further respectfully requested that this sentence be carried out expeditiously." In murder cases such as Simmons' capital punishment should, without a doubt, be the sentence given.
Prison overcrowding is a growing issue, and it doesn't need to be. If capital punishment were to be used more often it would open up a large number of space in the current prisons. State prison chief Jeffrey Beard said "Prop. 47 has allowed the state to comply with a court-ordered inmate reduction mandate a year ahead of schedule" this
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The idea that you could purposely take someone's life then continue to live your own seems completely absurd. According to Mitchell Keiter, deputy attorney general, "in 1994 courts sentenced 2.5% of the 911 defendants convicted of murder to death, 20.7% to life without parole, and 76.7% to life imprisonment with the chance of parole." As i previously stated the sentence "life with the chance of parole" gives these murderers the opportunity to get out of prison after only 12 years and 9 months, then they are back out on the streets free to commit more murders. Why are these dangerous criminals being released back out into society to harm other innocent citizens rather than just being sentenced to
It was reported that the ages of 16 and 17 did not violate any rights awarded by the 8th Amendment. The courts were finding out that the United States Supreme Court which held that the 8th and the 14th amendment forbid the execution of offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed, was no longer valid. Some people were arguing that Simmons was older than 15 but younger than 18 when he committed a capital crime which meant he should have known better. Roper v. Simmons was argued on October 13, 2004 and decided on March 1, 2005. I agree with the Supreme Court for resentencing Simmons to life in prison without probation, parole or release. After all, the only reason he committed this crime in the first place was because he thought he could get away with it. He was 17, one year away from being 18 which means you are now an adult so he definitely knew better. It seemed to me that he was just trying to impress people and then be able to brag about getting away with something as serious as murder. Shirley Crook was only 46 years old and had so many more years she could have lived if it wouldn't had been for Simmons trying to be “cool”. I do not think this case should have lasted as long as it did though. It started in 1993 and didn't end until 2005. Christopher Simmons is currently 41 and will remain in prison until the day he
Many people are led to believe that the death penalty doesn’t occur very often and that very few people are actually killed, but in reality, it’s quite the opposite. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1,359 people have been executed as a result of being on death row since 1977 to 2013. Even though this form of punishment is extremely controversial, due to the fact that someone’s life is at stake, it somehow still stands to this very day as our ultimate form of punishment. Although capital punishment puts murderers to death, it should be abolished because killing someone who murdered another, does not and will not make the situation any better in addition to costing tax payers millions of dollars.
...s was a federal case and a federal ruling which means that this new law outlawing the execution of anyone under the age of eighteen at the time of the crime extended its reach over the entire United States. This also overruled all state laws allowing juvenile executions. The Roper v. Simmons ruling overturned the decision from Stanford v. Kentucky which allowed the death penalty for juvenile offenders over the age of sixteen.
The Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of executing someone who claimed actual innocence in Herrera v. Collins (506 U.S. 390 (1993)). Although the Court left open the possibility that the Constitution bars the execution of someone who conclusively demonstrates that he or she is actually innocent, the Court noted that such cases would be very rare. The Court held that, in the absence of other constitutional violations, new evidence of innocence is no reason for federal courts to order a new trial. The Court also held that an innocent inmate could seek to prevent his execution through the clemency process, which, historically, has been "the 'fail safe' in our justice system." Herrera was not granted clemency, and was executed in 1993..
The proliferation of prison overcrowding has been a rising concern for the U.S. The growing prison population poses considerable health and safety risks to prison staffs and employees, as well as to inmates themselves. The risks will continue to increase if no immediate actions are taken. Whereas fighting proliferation is fundamentally the duty of the U.S. government, prison overcrowding has exposed that the U.S. government will need to take measures to combat the flaws in the prison and criminal justice system. Restructuring the government to combat the danger of prison overcrowding, specifically in California, thus requires reforms that reestablishes the penal codes, increases the state’s budget, and develops opportunities for paroles to prevent their return to prison. The following context will examine and discuss the different approaches to reduce the population of state prisons in California in order to avoid prison overcrowding.
The sentence for murder appears to be getting less severe as time passes. Crime is rampant and out of control. There must be a system to prevent these people from committing such grievous acts (Balanced Politics). Time spent in jail often is a means of stopping a few; but much more is needed in order to prevent recidivism. In some court cases a wide range of punishments that would cut the rate of crime should be available to prosecutors and judges (Balanced Politics). A judge could sentence a person to life in prison; but the criminal justice system may set this very same person free after ten or fifteen years in prison. Why must we put our trust in a judicial system that will let these vicious offenders out in society after ten or fifteen years in prison (Death Penalty). The judge may impose a life sent...
The overpopulation in the prison system in America has been an on going problem in the United States for the past two decades. Not only does it effect the American people who are also the tax payers to fund all of the convicts in prisons and jails, but it also effects the prisoners themselves. Family members of the prisoners also come into effect. Overpopulation in prison cause a horrible chain reaction that causes nothing but suffering and problems for a whole bunch people. Yet through all the problems that lye with the overpopulation in prisons, there are some solutions to fix this ongoing huge problem in America.
“Prison Overcrowding: The Problem.” American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC-American Legislative Exchange Council, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
Take into consideration that the Constitution states that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness can not be taken away without due process. The offenders committing the brutal, heinous crimes have not applied this right to the victims of their crimes. Why should the government take their rights into consideration when the victims rights meant so little to them? People always put forth the idea that killing is wrong in any sense, yet they don’t want to punish the people that commit the crimes. If a person is so uncompassionate for human life and not care what happens; are sick enough to harm someone else, they should also pay the price with their lives.
That, however, does not prevent criminals from taking their own lives. In fact, when presented with the option, approximately 34% of the inmates serving life would chose the death penalty as their sentence. Why not make it their own decision?
California’s prison system has been a hot topic for the better part of the past two decades. In 2006 it was estimated that California’s prison system was at 200 percent of its capacity (“California”). This severe overcrowding not only affects those in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), both inmates and staff, but it also affects society as a whole. Inmate’s rights are being violated due to the overcrowding and the taxpayers are being left to foot the bill for a system that is falling apart from within. Too many people think that the solution to this problem is to simply build more prisons. But that doesn’t seem to be a solution at this time and it doesn’t solve the problem of how many inmates we have in our prisons. With overcrowding being at an all time high prison officials are being forced to look at other options such as releasing prisoners early. This too causes a problem because most of these inmates are not properly rehabilitated and end up reoffending. So what is the solution? The entire judicial system as well as CDCR needs to be revamped. Sentencing laws need to be changed and CDCR needs to change their entire approach to rehabilitating inmates.
The world revolves around money, so our government should not waste it putting an inmate to death when we can keep him/her alive for a quarter of the cost. The reason it costs so much to give an inmate capital punishment is because they must submit to a extensive and strenuous judicial process. By doing so, the courts are making sure that they are not executing an innocent man for a crime that he did not commit, but even with these protections, the risk of murdering an innocent man cannot be completely eliminated. Life without parole not only saves millions of dollars, it safeguards the community from an irreversible mistake in taking the wrong life. The money that is saved can then be put towards programs that can improve the community (High Cost).
In the 1970s and 1980s, a massive amount of inmates began fillin up the United States prison systems. This huge rate of growth in this short amount of time, has greatly contributed to the prison overcrowding that the United States faces today. In fact, the prisons are still filled to the seams. This enormous flood of inmates has made it practically impossible for prison officials to keep up with their facilities and supervise their inmates. One of the main reasons why many prisons have become overcrowded is because of states’ harsh criminal laws and parole practices (Cohen). “One in every 100 American adults is behind bars, the highest incarceration rate in the world” (Cohen). The amount of inmates in corrections systems, throughout the nation, sky-rocketed to 708 percent between 1972 and 2008. Today, there are about 145,000 inmates occupying areas only designed for 80,000 (Posner). Peter Mosko, “an assistant professor of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice” (Frazier) stated, “America, with 2.3 million people behind bars, has more prisoners than soldiers” (Frazier). There have been studies that have shown “there are more men and women in prison than ever before. The number of inmates grew by an average of 1,600 a week. The U. S. has the highest rate of crime in the world” (Clark). Because of this influx in inmates, many prisoners’ rights groups have filed lawsuits charging that “overcrowded prisons violate the Constitution’s 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment” (Clark). It is clear that the United States corrections system needs to be reformed in order to eliminate this problem. Prison overcrowding is a serious issue in society due to the fact it affects prison ...
Overcrowding in our state and federal jails today has become a big issue. Back in the 20th century, prison rates in the U.S were fairly low. During the years later due to economic and political factors, that rate began to rise. According to the Bureau of justice statistics, the amount of people in prison went from 139 per 100,000 inmates to 502 per 100,000 inmates from 1980 to 2009. That is nearly 261%. Over 2.1 million Americans are incarcerated and 7.2 million are either incarcerated or under parole. According to these statistics, the U.S has 25% of the world’s prisoners. (Rick Wilson pg.1) Our prison systems simply have too many people. To try and help fix this problem, there needs to be shorter sentences for smaller crimes. Based on the many people in jail at the moment, funding for prison has dropped tremendously.
... system is overflowing with many cases involving violent crime, but it doesn't seem rational to have a system in place where there are cases where first degree murder has occurred and the sentence doesn't match the violation. I believe that if you take a life, you deserve a life sentence in prison. Allowing criminals to get away with murder is something that will hurt all of us. If we live in a world where this continues to happen, the system will fail to do its job to protect our city's from the worst kind of criminal.