10/20/14
Criminal Justice Capstone 2
Individual Project 2
Professor G.
(portions of this assignment have been previously submitted)
I will list five cases that have impacted the death penalty. I will also provide a summary and judgment of each case as well as the constitutional issues that arose.
Kennedy v. Louisiana (US Supreme Court, 554 U.S.___
June 25, 2008
Summary and judgment:
Petitioner Patrick Kennedy was convicted and sentenced to death in Louisiana for the aggravated rape of his then 8 year-old stepdaughter. A Louisiana state statute authorized capital punishment for the rape of a child under 12. The State Supreme Court affirmed the statute, rejecting petitioner’s reliance on Coker v. Georgia, which prevented the use of capital punishment for the rape of an adult woman. The Supreme Court concluded that the Eighth Amendment bars Louisiana from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim’s death.
Baze v. Rees (U.S. Supreme Court, 553 U.S. ___
Apr. 16, 2008
Summary and judgment:
Petitioners Ralph Baze and Thomas C. Bowling, convicted for murder and sentenced to death in Kentucky state court, filed suit asserting that the lethal injection protocol violates the Eighth Amendment’s constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual punishments.” The state trial court upheld it as constitutional. Later, the Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the lethal injection protocol was substantially safe from "wanton" and "unnecessary infliction of pain," torture, or "lingering death." The Supreme Court affirmed the lethal injection protocol as constitutional.
Atkins v. Virginia (US Supreme Court, 536 U.S. 304
June 20, 2002
Summary and judgment:
Petitioner Daryl Atkins and his accomplice, William Jones, were convicted for murder. The jury convicted Atkins of capital murder even though the defense presented Atkins's school records and IQ score of 59 alleging that he...