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Author: Rachel A. Kalbeitzer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Capital punishment
Languages : en
Pages : 112
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Book Description
Author: Rachel A. Kalbeitzer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Capital punishment
Languages : en
Pages : 112
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Book Description
Author: Miranda A. DeWitte
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Author: Kari Peterson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Modern Americans increasingly perceive childhood as a distinct stage of life. As a result, the legal recognition of psychological differences between juveniles and adults in a series of Supreme Court cases has rendered juveniles under the age of eighteen as less culpable during criminal sentencing. This increasingly liberal attitude in the courts towards juvenile punishment has been officially established through Eighth Amendment jurisprudence in three major Supreme Court cases: Roper v. Simmons (2005), Graham v. Florida (2010), and Miller v. Alabama (2012). Roper v. Simmons established the precedent of leniency towards juveniles by abolishing the death penalty for minors under eighteen years of age. Graham v. Florida and Miller v. Alabama followed, establishing that life imprisonment for juveniles for a homicidal crime and for a non-homicidal crime respectively are unconstitutional. After close analysis of these landmark cases in juvenile sentencing, there is substantial evidence that the Supreme Court did not simply rely on an interpretation of the text of the Eighth Amendments cruel and unusual punishment clause, as elaborated in earlier jurisprudence, but instead looked towards current societys moral opinion as a determining factor in the rulings. The Courts majority relied on the concept of evolving standards of decency in society, ruling that societys current ideas about juveniles place within both the nation and the world render harsh punishments typically applied to adults to be cruel and unusual for juveniles, in this sense counter to the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. To pinpoint societys current attitude toward juveniles, this thesis entails a close evaluation of the amicus briefs used by the Court. The examination of amicus briefs is the central contribution of this thesis. My comparison of texts of the briefs and the majority rulings indicates that the Courts majorities were influenced by the briefs. Sixteen out of the eighteen briefs submitted supported the evolving standards of decency view and incorporated social science evidence. Using Roper v. Simmons as an example, the majority opinion echoed sources that claimed to represent societys prevailing attitudes about juveniles, most significantly, submitted by advocacy groups, legal and medical professionals, and international human rights organizations. This thesis evaluates how these amicus briefs articulated the opinions of a number of groups within American society to place juveniles in a separate and protected class of citizens. Judging by textual comparisons, the majority on the Court responded to this action by paying greater attention to the shifting opinions of morality within society than the words of the Constitution. In doing so, the majority accepted social science evidence as a legitimate indicator of evolving standards of decency and affirmed that public opinion should be relevant in judicial rulings. The dissents in Roper took issue with the relevance of changing values as indicated by social scientific evidence. Briefs submitted by groups favorable to a strict constitutional basis of judgement challenged the majoritys opinion, displaying many connections to the dissents.
Author: Mary Welek Atwell
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9780820467115
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 192
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The Supreme Court has looked to «evolving standards of decency» in determining whether the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Evolving Standards of Decency examines the ways in which popular culture portrays the death penalty. By analyzing literature and film, Atwell argues that capital punishment becomes much more complex when both offenders and victims are presented as fully developed individuals. Numerous books and films from the last several decades expose flaws in the criminal justice system and provide audiences with stories that raise questions about race, class, and actual innocence in the administration of the ultimate punishment. Although most people will not read legal briefs supporting or challenging the death penalty, many will see films or read novels that raise issues about its fairness. Themes and images gathered through popular culture may ultimately influence whether Americans continue to believe that capital punishment conforms to their evolving standards of decency and justice. Those studying justice issues, corrections, or capital punishment will find this an accessible and provocative work that places the stories read in novels or seen in movies in the context of the legal system that has the power of life and death.
Author: Tracy L. Fass
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780549402008
Category : Clinical psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 160
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Book Description
Recent judicial decisions and statutory changes have resulted in an absolute ban on capital punishment for convicted juvenile offenders. This study examines public opinion of alternative sentencing options: life without parole, life with parole, and blended sentencing. The current study is the first to assess public opinion of life without parole outside the context of public opinion of capital punishment for juveniles. A total of 359 participants (189 undergraduate students and 170 law students) were administered a vignette describing the commission and conviction of a serious crime. The participants were asked to rate how likely they would be to sentence the defendant to each of the three sentence options. Results provided partial support for the hypotheses that defendant age, culpability, and offense severity are positively related to sentence severity, and participants' level of education is negatively related to sentence severity. Overall, results indicate that participants preferred a blended sentence most, life with parole second, and life without parole least. It appears that both the general public and the legal community support the use of the juvenile justice system as a first step in punishing a defendant, and neither group supports the trend toward more punitive treatment of juvenile offenders.
Author: Michele Pich
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Capital punishment
Languages : en
Pages : 102
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In recent years, several landmark cases have excluded groups of offenders from capital punishment eligibility on the basis of diminished capacity and evolving standards of decency. The current study examined data from 203 university students to examine the evolving standards of decency regarding death penalty eligibility for individuals with mental health diagnoses. Participants were provided with one of four case vignettes, which varied only by mental health diagnosis, and asked to sentence the defendant in the vignette to death or to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Results revealed that sentencing decision differed by diagnosis; participants sentenced the defendant with Paranoid Schizophrenia less harshly than they did the defendants with Bipolar I Disorder without psychotic features, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and no mental health diagnosis. Perceived level of responsibility for the crime did not significantly mediate the relationship between diagnosis and sentencing decision.
Author: Adam Grubb
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law and ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 146
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Author: Michael L. Perlin
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442200588
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 295
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Book Description
There is no question that the death penalty is disproportionately imposed in cases involving defendants with mental disabilities. There is clear, systemic bias at all stages of the prosecution and the sentencing process – in determining who is competent to be executed, in the assessment of mitigation evidence, in the ways that counsel is assigned, in the ways that jury determinations are often contaminated by stereotyped preconceptions of persons with mental disabilities, in the ways that cynical expert testimony reflects a propensity on the part of some experts to purposely distort their testimony in order to achieve desired ends. These questions are shockingly ignored at all levels of the criminal justice system, and by society in general. Here, Michael Perlin explores the relationship between mental disabilities and the death penalty and explains why and how this state of affairs has come to be, to explore why it is necessary to identify the factors that have contributed to this scandalous and shameful policy morass, to highlight the series of policy choices that need immediate remediation, and to offer some suggestions that might meaningfully ameliorate the situation. Using real cases to illustrate the ways in which the persons with mental disabilities are unable to receive fair treatment during death penalty trials, he demonstrates the depth of the problem and the way it’s been institutionalized so as to be an accepted part of our system. He calls for a new approach, and greater attention to the issues that have gone overlooked for so long.
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Judges
Languages : en
Pages : 802
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Author: Matthew C. Altman
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303111874X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 801
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Book Description
This Handbook provides a comprehensive survey of major topics in the philosophy of punishment from many of the field’s leading scholars. Key features Presents a history of punishment theory from ancient times to the present. Evaluates the main proposed justifications of punishment, including retributivism, general and specific deterrence theories, mixed theories, expressivism, societal-defense theory, fair play theory, rights forfeiture theory, and the public health-quarantine model. Discusses sentencing, proportionality, policing, prosecution, and the role punishment plays in the context of the state. Examines advances in neuroscience and debates about whether free will skepticism undermines the justifiability of punishment. Considers forgiveness, restorative justice, and calls to abolish punishment. Addresses pressing social issues such as mass incarceration, juvenile justice, punitive torture, the death penalty, and “cruel and unusual” punishment. · With its unmatched breadth and depth, this book is essential reading for scholars who want to keep abreast of the field and for advanced students wishing to explore the frontiers of the subject.
