Even though the Supreme Court ruled against the death penalty in certain cases many states tried to re-write their death penalty laws to bypass the court’s ruling. In 2008, a similar case was presented to the Supreme Court. Kennedy v. Louisiana was a case in which Kennedy was convicted of aggravated rape of his eight year old step daughter. A Louisiana statute allowed the upgrade to the death penalty for the aggravate rape of an individual under twelve.
Christina M. Owens Writing Assignment October 29th, 2012 Capital Punishment by Lethal Injection Capital Punishment is defined as the execution of a convicted criminal by the State as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. Capital Punishment is given when the crime is considered so vast and so horrible that it is over the realm of being forgiven or pardoned. Capital punishment in the United States is officially certified by 38 of the 50 states; the minimum age at time of crime to be subject to the death penalty is 18. Throughout history, statistics have proven that Capital Punishment furthermore known as the death penalty to be a working prevention of major crimes. When the death penalty is carried out, it
He is very experienced in criminal law and is against mandatory sentencing. This journal presents information that the mandatory sentencing policy in the U.S. is a failure. It argues that Legislators thought that they could “get tough on crime,” especially drug crime. I feel this source gives educated reasons as to why drug policy needs to be changed. It also backs up my other sources with the same research results; by removing the sentencing discretion of judges, and replacing it with mandatory jail sentences, we are sending more offenders to prison instead of programs designed to rehabilitate.
Desmond LeSure Professor Bolton ENGL 1020 19 April 2012 “Is the Three-Strikes Law fair and ethical?” There are individuals who were known as habitual criminals who constantly repeated the cycle of committing a crime, getting arrested, and eventually getting released. In 1993, Americans noticed that this was very costly to the public because the process of arresting and trying these criminals was expensive. American tax payers were beginning to become concerned with this issue and wanted something to be done about habitual offenders. Society is pushing the issue that it was more logical to keep repeat criminals in jail and not release them to commit more crimes. Politicians listened to society and executed a law that would put an end to
I will also give a prediction of how juvenile justice prevention and intervention strategies will be handled over the next 2 decades. “The law has long defined a line between juvenile and adult offenders, but that line has been drawn at different places, for different reasons. Early in United States history, the law was heavily influenced by the common law of England, which governed the American colonies. One of the most important English lawyers of the time was William Blackstone. Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, first published in the late 1760s, were widely read and admired by our nation’s founders”(The history of, 2008).
In the 1976 case, Gregg v. Georgia, the Court upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty, as applied under the new statutes. You need to look at the constitutional rights during the sentencing as well as the impacts on sentencing guidelines and the constitutionality of the death penalty. On the constitutionality on the sentencing guidelines they can be used to determine the appropriate sentence for an offender. “With the goals of the offender’s sentencing to hopefully lead to rehabilitation, retribution, incapacitation, or deterrence.” (Worrall, 2007) The death penalty is the most serious punishment that can be imposed. The death penalty is a very sensitive subject and with it comes different pros and cons.
There are many laws that come into play with the end result being less crime. They are intended to make punishments harsher for offenders with the hopes that the offender will not repeat crimes. The Habitual Felon Act was developed in order to increase sentencing time for the repeat offenders. This was considered to be a ""tough on crime" legislation that was adopted by the North Carolina General Assemble in the early 1990s" (Young). The law was also adapted in order to get more violent individuals off of the street, instead it filled the prisons with nonviolent, low priority felons.
“Indeterminate sentences are sentences that have a minimum and maximum time to serve; a decision by a release authority determines the actual time served within that range” (Seiter, R. 2011). Indeterminate sentencing structure was used before the 1970’s and was supported by two beliefs. The first belief was environmental explanations could contribute to the offenders upbringing and mental condition. The second belief was the offender suffers from psychological problems that result in criminal behavior. These beliefs became heavily challenged in congress because they made the criminal justice system responsible for turning criminals into law abiding citizens.
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214, reformed the system of Habeas Corpus review in federal court. Although prisoners continue to bring lawsuits in federal court, these statutes have made it more difficult for prisoners to make successful claims. 1.
With the increasing re-offending rate in recent years, it is a fundamental importance to understand those factors affecting the people to commit sexual crimes and the reasons of the reoffending. The second part is to evaluate the most commonly used sentence which imposed on the sexual offender on the aspect of rehabilitation. In this research, secondary resources and data it mainly used to examine the sentencing system on the sexual offences, some of other countries' work is also cited out as reference for the research. The existing sentencing system is obviously incompleteness that the reoffending rate of sexual crimes is high and devastating. Therefore, recommendations are also made in relation to the factors of this issue.