Gibson’s older sister, Patty Gibson Bosko, testified she missed her baby sister, who was eight years younger. Bosko lives in Denver but she said that when the family visited Florida in 2005 they spent time with Gibson who was thrilled to see Bosko’s kids and grandkids. She also stated that her sister had a big, loving, heart and that she did not deserve to die the way she did. Jurors had to with the aggravators and mitigators as they decided whether to recommend death or life in prison. Circuit Judge Randell H. Rowe III was made to give great weight to the jury’s recommendation but was not bound by it when he decided on a sentence. A tie vote among jurors is a recommendation for life, however. Prosecutor J. Ryan Will told jurors that they had already agreed that the aggravator of witness elimination existed when they found Booth guilty of witness tampering. When jurors convicted Booth of premeditated murder they found the aggravator of cold, calculated and premeditated. “The defendant sat down and made a carefully calculated decision that he needed to kill and should kill and did kill Debra Gibson and that this determination was made over the course of weeks and up to a month because he didn’t want to go back to prison,” Will said. Will also added a third aggravator, a prior violent felony. He said Booth was convicted of aggravated assault in another case nine months after killing Gibson. Booth shot Gibson so she would not testify against him after his arrest in a drug case and prosecutor Ed Davis argued that should be given great weight by the jury when considering whether to recommend death. “Think of the chilling effect the murder of a witness has to other potential witnesses to others wanting to come forward,” Davis said.... ... middle of paper ... ...t if the target is attractive enough. This is related to the Routine Activity Theory of sociology. Booth had already committed crimes and missed the first years of his daughter’s life because of being in prison. When he believed that he could potentially go back to prison and miss the first years of his son’s life, he came to the conclusion that it would be more beneficial for him to kill her, so as to not receive more time in prison. It is also possible that he took into account the fact that she was a drug addict, and likely would not be missed. This is known as Rational Choice Theory in sociology. At that point it is possible that he was so stressed from thinking about a criminal informant causing him to miss out on his child’s life, he believed that killing Gibson was the only conceivable choice. This is otherwise called the Life Course Theory of sociology.
The evidence presented to myself and the other juror’s proves that Tyrone Washburn is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the murder of his wife, Elena Washburn. On March 12, 1979 Elena Washburn was strangled in the living room of her family’s home. Her body was then dragged to the garage, leaving a trail of blood from the living room to the place it was found. Her husband, Tyrone Washburn, found her in the family’s garage on March 13, 1979 at 1:45 A.M. When officer Dale Chambers arrived at the scene he found her lying face down in a pool of blood. The solid evidence in this case proves only one person, Tyrone Washburn, is guilty of murder.
.... Madison was applied to this decision because the actions committed were unconstitutional. According to the Supreme Court the 8th Amendment was broken because the District Court of Appeal was giving a cruel and unusual punishment to Graham. The 8th amendment claus does not allow a juvenile offender to be sentenced to life in jail without a parole for a non-homicidal crime. Therefore Terrance could not fall through with this punishment.
According to the Justice Kagan, in the case of Florida vs. Harris, “we considered how a court should determine if the “alert” of drug-detention during a traffic stop provides probable cause to search a vehicle” (Kagan).
This statement led Harrington and McGhee to get arrested and get charged with murder, which led both to go on trial separately. McGhee was sentenced to life in prison based on the testimony, which was given, by Hughes and three other jail inmates, who stated that McGhee had admitted in participating in the murder of Sch...
Ducic’s victims included Barbara Davis, his domestic partner and drug addict, as well as a drug user that Ducic was an acquaintance with. The death of Davis was at first believed to be due to an overdose, but police informants identified Davis’s voice on a recording claiming that he killed her. The other victim, the drug addict, was thought to be eliminated by Ducic for fear that he would inform the police that he killed Davis. Investigators believed that Ducic gave both victims a deathly amount of drugs that would make it appear as though they both simply overdosed. Ducic was found guilty on both occasions, yet a second trial in regards to his sentencing had to occur and another hearing had to be conducted on whether or not to remove the death penalty.
Thesis Statement: With Jim Crow laws in effect, they have guaranteed African-Americans discrimination based on the color of their skin, ignorance of their given rights, and lack of acknowledgement for their successes.
The truth can sometimes depend on the circumstance and the person who states it. When confronted with conflicting accounts or questionable details, a judge within the court of law must decide the sentence of an individual with these obstacles in place. In this case, the defendant Dannie McGrew has been charged with the murder of Barney Quill, but claims that it was self-defense. The following contains a thorough explanation as to how the judge decided upon the verdict of acquittal.
In the precedent setting case Graham v. Florida the Supreme Court ruled that a sentence of life without punishment for non-homicidal juvenile offenders is a
Steve Harmon is guilty of felony murder because he participated and had knowledge about a crime that ended up in the death of an innocent citizen. The judge stated the if you believe that Steve harmon took part in the crime than you must return a verdict of guilty. I believe that Steve went into the drugstore on that day for the purpose of being a lookout. Some of Steve’s journal entry’s lead to him feeling guilty or like a “monster”.
In the United States, true equality has never existed. From the Declaration of Independence to modern times, the U.S. legal system has failed in any attempt at equality. The ideology of "all [men] are equal but some [men] are more equal than others" has been present throughout the history of the U.S. (Orwell). Inequality has always existed in the United States legal system and continues to exist today; however, the inequality presently in the system is not as blatant as what it once was, but the system has come to depend on inequality. Since the very beginning of a legal system in the United States, there has been inequality.
The People vs. Hall and Dread Scott Decision both were very interesting cases. Their similarities zoomed to expose the preamble of the Constitution and make the authors of it think over what they meant by "all men are created equal." This question is still present today, are all men created equal? Or does it mean by men, the white Americans with European decent?
...em, but Corbett’s superior made the account that he shot Booth without order, or excuse. Corbett ended up shooting Booth in the neck. The wound was fatal and Booth died three hours later.
The case of the State of Florida vs. Chad Heins happened in 1994 in Mayport, Florida. It was on April 17, 1994 that Tina Heins, who was pregnant at the time, was found stabbed to death in her apartment. She shared an apartment with her husband Jeremy Heins and Jeremy’s brother Chad Heins. At the time of the incident Jeremy Heins was on a ship because he worked in the navy but Chad Heins was at the apartment. Before the incident happened Chad Heins, the defendant, who was nineteen at the time, used his brothers license to buy alcohol at a strip club near the apartment. After that Chad Heins had went to another bar where his brothers license got confiscated. He left the bar around 12:45 a.m. and went back to the apartment. He then washed his
On August 20th, 1989 Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their parents inside their Beverly Hills home with fifteen shot gun blasts after years of alleged “sexual, psychological, and corporal abuse” (Berns 25). According to the author of “Murder as Therapy”, “The defense has done a marvelous job of assisting the brothers in playing up their victim roles” (Goldman 1). Because there was so much evidence piled up against the brothers, the defense team was forced to play to the jurors’ emotions if they wanted a chance at an acquittal. Prosecutor Pamela Bozanich was forced to concede that “Jose and Kitty obviously had terrific flaws-most people do in the course of reminding jurors that the case was about murder, not child abuse” (Adler 103). Bozanich “cast the details of abuse as cool, calculated lies” (Smolowe 48)...
(Baude, 21). This quote provides details of why the finality in the decisions regarding death may not accurately represent the justice the accused deserves. It augments the ultimate overarching point made by Scheck and Rust-Tierney that we should not determine death. Despite the strong points made throughout the debate, there were key issues that Schneck and Rust-Tierney adequately refuted. The first was their failure when they lacked a counter to Scheidegger’s point on how inmates are often treated in the facilities themselves.