Juvenile Court Case: Thompson Vs. Oklahoma

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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 …show more content…

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

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