Et Al. United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit. N.d. Legal Information Institute. Cornell University, n.d. Web. 10 May 2014.
Summary of the Court Case. (Cover story). (1989). Congressional Digest, 68(8/9), 194-224. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.wnc.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=8910300671&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site
[49] Justice Frank Murphy’s Notes on Screws et al. v. United States, Frank Murphy Papers.
Since the establishment of the first juvenile court in Chicago Illinois for over 100 years (Grisso, 199,813) ago, psychologists have continued to show a strong presence in juvenile proceedings and assist the juvenile justice system, as well as young people involved in it. a special court and the justice system for minors, partly in response to the recognition that adolescents, while clearly shows greater cognitive, emotional and behavioral capacities were established than their younger counterparts, do not have many of the skills that adults and relevant to the legal decision making and criminal responsibility (Otto and Borum, 2004) demonstrators. As a result, the juvenile court was to consider the criminal behavior of minors in context of development, with a greater emphasis on rehabilitation and decreased attention on the punishment (Zimring, 2000). Since the juvenile court was to focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment, the dramatic changes in the landscape of juvenile justice in 1966 and 1967, changing forever the denial of constitutional guarantees for minors. In its decisions in Kent v. United States (1966) and In re Gault (1967), the Supreme Court of the United States asked if the ideal rehabilitation of the
court to put him in a high security prison instead of a low security mental hospital. They
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” The key phrase to examine when determining the constitutionality of capital punishment is “cruel and unusual punishments.” The question that must be answered are ‘what makes a punishment cruel and unusual’ and if or how these standards apply to capital punishment. According to Supreme Court Associate Justice William Brennan “the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause ‘must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society” (Brennan 32). Judging from thi...
Cruel and unusual punishment has been seen throughout history and has been shaped and molded ever since the constitution we have today was ratified. Being apart of the Eighth Amendment the cruel and unusual punishment clause can have many interpretations when it comes to what is considered “cruel and unusual”. Kenneth Jost explains in his article by CQ Researcher called “Sentencing Debates”, “1960’s-1970’s: Calls for sentencing reform: Liberals seek to reduce disparities; conservatives want to provide certainty, check ‘leniency’ by judges, parole boards” (Jost). The author discusses how in the early 1960’s people were trying to limit the rights of a judge's ability to sentence someone unfairly by invoking a sentence reform. This sentence reform would then be a basis for which all judges would use to sentence someone who is said to be guilty for a crime. In 1988 new laws were set that went along with the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment. In the subarticle “Are the federal guidelines unconstitutional?” Jost explains, “ Supre...
People v. Jones, 792 P. 2d 643 - Cal: Supreme Court 1990. Supreme Court of California. 28 June
America”. The Georgetown Law Journal. 80.95 (1991): 95-129. Georgetown Law Library. Web. 16 Jun 2014
Holmes Jr, Oiver Wendle. United States. Supreme Court. 274 U.S. 200, at 207. 1927. Print.
Court. There are many reasons for why they thought that. The death penalty was looked
Remy, Richard C., Gary E. Clayton, and John J. Patrick. "Supreme Court Cases." Civics Today. Columbus, Ohio: Glencoe, 2008. 796. Print.
Hall, Kermit L, eds. The Oxford guide to United States Supreme Court decisions New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
... rape or treason was committed ("8th Amendment to the Constitution – U.S. Amendment VIII Summary"). However, there are some cases where the death penalty is unacceptable regardless of the crime. In the Supreme Court case of Roper v Simmons the court decided that the execution of someone for a crime they committed when they were a minor violated the eighth amendment . The court case of Atkins v Virginia established that the death penalty is not an acceptable punishment for mentally ill felons (Lemieux, "The Supreme Court's Empty Eighth Amendment Promise"). The Supreme Court has also ruled that executing anyone under the age of 18 is an act of cruel and unusual punishment ("8th Amendment to the Constitution – U.S. Amendment VIII Summary"). The death penalty is the worst punishment a person could get, and because of that there are many restrictions on when to use it.
Weems v. United States (1910) set a judicial precedent for showing that punishment must be proportionate to the crime committed and allowed courts to decide what is “cruel and unusual”. Lower courts allowed the VIS and that use sometimes came under question. Thus the case was sent to the U.S. Supreme Court to review. In Booth v. Maryland (1987) and Gathers v. South Carolina (1989) the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that VIS could potentially lead to harsher sentences and yet upon further review reconsider their stance on VIS and overturn their decisions and concluded that the Eight Amendment was not violated by victim Impact statements on the ground that such statements did not lead to cruel and unusual punish...