Essay On Roper V. Simmons

2377 Words5 Pages

In 1993, a young boy at the age of 17 thought that he could get away with murder, but completely made a fool of himself and ruined his life. The case Roper v. Simmons takes place in 2004, which explains how Christopher was given the death penalty for the murder of Shirley Crook. He had planned this days in advance with a couple of other buddies, Charles Benjamin 15 and John Tessmer 16 to rob her, kidnap her and murdered her. On the night of the incident Tessmer chickens out. Charles and Christopher continued to go through with the plan. They broke into her house around 2am in the morning, as they wake her up they wrestle her to the ground. They proceeded to bound her head in duct tape, not only put tape around her head, but tused electrical …show more content…

This forbid the imposition of the death penalty on people younger than 18. This issue has been raised in cases of mental illness and mentally retarded and most recently and Roper vs Simmons. The eighth amendment states “excessive bail shall not be required nor excessive fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted”. This being brought up also leads me to believe that what Christopher further says isn't believable. Christopher opposed to the decision that was giving because the death penalty. He went along with saying that he was “mentally unstable” and due to the fact that he was 17, he would be able to get away with it. Christopher initiated the Supreme Court case because he felt like the that violated his 8th amendment rights, which protected him from the death …show more content…

Alabama,, a 14-year-old boy who was sentenced to death without parole due to aggravated assault. Like most cases, the ruling is going to have an effect on hundreds of individuals where their age and mitigating factors were left out. In this cases, the lower courts had to conduct new sentencing with factors that need to be considered about the juvenile. Whether it's character, life circumstances, age. Everything that should be acknowledged before making a decision. The court didn’t fully abandon juveniles that are to be given life without parole in all circumstances. We look at the facts once again that juveniles are biologically different than adults and less responsible for their mistakes. In the article it also states that some juveniles would receive the death penalty due to their race, historical background, and how they economically live is what determines the status. This connects to my case in the sense that Christopher had a troubled childhood. When he committed the crime involving two other friends, and the murder of his neighbor Shirley crook. When he did this, he felt to confident in what he was doing or else he wouldn’t of stated that he could get away with it due to his age. In fairness, Christopher didn’t have any sense in what he was doing. He knew it was wrong, but will it ever be confirmed why

Open Document