Unit 8 Seminar CJ227 : Criminal Procedure

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Unit 8 SeminarCJ227 Criminal Procedure

• Death Penalty

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Unit 8 SeminarCJ227 Criminal Procedure

• Death Penalty

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Unit 8 Requirements

• Quiz
• Discussion Board
• 2 Web Field Trip Questions
• Chapters 14, 15, 16 online material
• Seminar
• Final papers

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Countries Without the Death Penalty

• Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France,
  Finland, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hungary,
  Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New
  Zealand, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal,
  Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sweden,
  Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom.

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Countries With the Death Penalty

• Afghanistan, Bahamas, Belize, China, Congo, Cuba,
  Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica,
  Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya,
  Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan,
  Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
  Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan,
  Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United
  Arab Emirates, United States, Vietnam, Yemen,
  Zimbabwe

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Death Penalty

• Fuhrman v. Georgia (1972)
• 5-4 Decision that the indiscriminate manner in
  which the Death Penalty was being applied
  violated the 8th Amendments Cruel and Unusual
  Punishment.

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Death Penalty

• States respond to Furman v. Georgia
• 37 States pass new death penalty laws
• Woodson v. North Carolina (1976)

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Death Penalty

• 38 States and the Federal Government have the
  Death Penalty.

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Death Penalty

• When do you think a person can be sentenced to
  death? For what Crimes?

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Death Penalty

• When do you think a person can be sentenced to
  death? For what crimes?
• Coker v. Georgia Rape of an adult woman

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Death Penalty

• Do you think that there can ever be a crime
  besides murder that the death penalty would be an
  appropriate sentence for?

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Death Penalty

• What about the rape of a child? What if the
  child was kidnapped and held for years repeatedly
  raped should the death penalty be an available
  sentence?

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Louisiana v. Kennedy

• Louisiana had a law that allowed for the death
  penalty for a rape of a child under the age off
  12
• There were five other states that also had laws
  allowing for the death penalty for the rape of a
  child . The State Court held that child rape
  was unique in terms of the harm that it inflicted
  upon the victim and society and concluded that,
  short of murder, there is no crime more deserving
  of death. The U.S. Supreme Court held that the
  8th Amendment prohibits the death penalty for any
  crime other than 1st degree murder.
• What do you think of the ruling?

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Low IQ/Juveniles

• The Supreme Court has also reviewed in the last
  couple of years the issue of the death penalty
  for individuals that have a low IQ and for
  juveniles.
• What do you think on these issues?

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Juveniles

• In 2005, the Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons
  struck down the death penalty for juveniles.
• 22 defendants had been executed for crimes
  committed as juveniles since 1976.

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Low IQ

• In 2002, the Supreme Court held in Atkins v.
  Virginia that it is unconstitutional to execute
  defendants with mental retardation.

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States with Death Penalty

• Alabama Florida Louisiana New Hampshire South
  Carolina Wyoming Arizona Georgia Maryland New
  Mexico South Dakota Arkansas Idaho Mississippi
  North Carolina Tennessee California Illinois
  Missouri Ohio Texas Colorado Indiana Montana
  Oklahoma Utah U.S. Govt. Connecticut Kansas
  Nebraska Oregon Virginia Delaware Kentucky Nevada
  Pennsylvania Washington
• Indicates jurisdictions with no executions since
  1976.

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Death Penalty Costs

• The California death penalty system costs
  taxpayers 114 million per year beyond the costs
  of keeping convicts locked up for life.
  Taxpayers have paid more than 250 million for
  each of the states executions. (L.A. Times,
  March 6, 2005)
• The most comprehensive study in the country found
  that the death penalty costs North Carolina 2.16
  million per execution over the costs of
  sentencing murderers to life imprisonment. The
  majority of those costs occur at the trial level.

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Death Penalty Costs

• Enforcing the death penalty costs Florida 51
  million a year above what it would cost to punish
  all first-degree murderers with life in prison
  without parole. Based on the 44 executions
  Florida had carried out since 1976, that amounts
  to a cost of 24 million for each execution.
  (Palm Beach Post, January 4, 2000).
• In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average
  of 2.3 million, about three times the cost of
  imprisoning someone in a single cell at the
  highest security level for 40 years. (Dallas
  Morning News, March 8, 1992).

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Too fat for Death Penalty?

• An Ohio death row inmate scheduled for execution
  says he is too fat to be put to death, arguing
  that executioners would have trouble finding his
  veins and that his weight could diminish the
  effectiveness of one of the lethal injection
  drugs.