Atkins Vs Virgina Case

In the case of Atkins v. Virginia, Daryl Renard Atkins is accused of the kidnapping, robbery, and murder of Eric Michael Nesbitt. Atkins was also charged with use of a firearm while committing each of these offenses ("FindLaw's United States Supreme Court case and opinions.”, 2017). Atkins was convicted of capital murder and related crimes, by a Virginia jury and sentenced to death, but his case was appealed to the Virginia Supreme Courts, on the grounds that it is unlawful to put to death a person who has intellectual disabilities (Mental Retardation). Virginia Supreme Courts upheld the decision of the Virginia courts

Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners’ Union Court cases over time have come forth and altered the course of this country and even the world. While this case didn’t really affect the world, Jones v. North Carolina brought forth an important question on prisoner’s rights. Jones v. North Carolina was a court case in 1977 that brought forth the debate if workers in prisons have the right to join a labor union. The details of the court case and thoughts on if the court was justified in their ruling will bring to light of what sort of value as a human being do prisoners have.

Charge: Arson to forest land, Arson to property, Unlawfully causing a fire forest, Misdemeanor unlawfully causing a fire of property

While appealing to the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, the petitioner argued, “that the trial court erred in failing to disregard the jury’s answer to the mental-retardation special issue and in denying the appellant’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.” 270 S.W3d 13 (Tex. Cr. App. 2010). The petitioner argued that “because he introduced expert witnesses to demonstrate mental retardation and the State did not introduce its own expert witnesses in rebuttal, the trial court should have disregarded the jury’s answer to the mental-retardation special issue or granted his motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.” 270 S.W.3d 13 (Tex. Cr. App. 2010). The Texas court found that the burden of proof to determine intellectual disability fell to the petitioner and that there was “no authority,

In 1984, a protest was held during the Republic National Convention, in Dallas. The demonstrators were protesting the policies of the Reagan Administration and a few companies based in Dallas. Gregory Lee Johnson, at the time a member of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, participated in the protest. When the protestors reached Dallas City Hall, Johnson doused an American flag in kerosene and set it on fire. Johnson was charged with violation of Texas law, "intentionally or knowingly damages, defaces, mutilates, or burns the flag of the United States or the State of Texas." His actions were classified as a class A misdemeanor. Johnson was convicted, sentenced to one year in prison, and fined $2,000. He appealed to the Fifth Court of Appeals in Texas, stating that his actions were protected by “symbolic

The defendant reported he was primarily raised by his grandmother in Pleasantville, NJ after his mother passed away when he was 7 years old. His mother's name was Sherry Taylor and his father's name is unknown. He doesn't recall what type of work his mother did. He described his childhood as good, and denied any instances of child abuse and

A major problem that many representative democracies had, and still have, is securing minorities rights within a system ruled by the majority of that country. This is when the term modern pluralism comes into light. Modern pluralism is the idea that having a large number of parties within a government will create more power in the system, which ensures that not a single group will contain total control.

Throughout the United States history, there have been many decisions that could have both made and broken the establishment as we know it. One such case that hinges on that statement would be that of the United States V. Jones. The Government is your friend, if you haven’t done anything wrong then you have nothing to hide. Respondent Jones committed a crime that is a known fact. The police had a warrant and they acted on that warrant, although it had expired which was there own fault, they attached a GPS onto his wife’s car because he was smart when using his own car and his own cell phone. Talking in code and only driving from his house to work in his personal car.

Virginia, in which a mild mentally retarded man named, “Daryl Renard Atkins was convicted of abduction, armed robbery, and capital murder” ("Atkins v. Virginia."). He was sentenced to death twice but that was overturned by a 6-3 vote by the United States Supreme Court and Justice Stevens had this to say when the verdict came : “Construing and applying the Eighth Amendment in the light of our 'evolving standards of decency,' we therefore conclude that such punishment is excessive and that the Constitution 'places a substantive restriction on the State's power to take the life' of a mentally retarded offender” ("Atkins v. Virginia."). What Justice Stevens is saying is it was no longer socially acceptable to put a mentally retarded person to death any

Similar to the aforementioned case, Kevin n. Stanford v. Missouri, this story involves a young man by the name of Christopher Simmons as well as two other young men, Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer. At the time of the incident Simmons was still a junior high school, he was 17 years of age, Charles Benjamin was 15 years of age and John Tessmer was then 16. Simmons encouraged both Benjamin and Tessmer to assist him with committing murder. Records indicate that Simmons was in fact the instigator of the crime. Simmons plan was to “commit burglary and murder by breaking and entering, tying up a victim, and throwing the victim off a bridge.” Simmons assured both Benjamin and Tessmer that once the crime was committed they could “get away with it”

Cornelius Dupree Jr. and Anthony Massingill were convicted on November 23, 1979 for allegedly approaching a 26 year old white woman and one male friend. The two victims reported that Dupree and Massingill held them with a gun pointing at both as they walked back to their car. Mr. Dupree and Massingill had forced the male victim to drive his car with them inside and then robbed the couple. Moments later they ordered the male victim to get out of the car and once he did they both took off with the female victim and raped her in a nearby park. After the attack, the 26 year old victim walked to the nearest highway for helped and was later found unconscious by a police patrol. Dupree and Massingill were stopped a week later

In the case of Olmsted v. L.C, the court ruled on the side of Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson. There were two major outcomes of the case. The first was that mental illness is a disability and therefore covered under ADA, and second Title II, which covers state and local governments, cannot exclude a group of individuals from receiving such benefits. As justice Ginsburg stated in her decision

William Armor of Illinois was recently released from prison and exonerated for a 1995 murder arson conviction that a judge vacated. William was accused of setting a fire which killed his mother-in-law. He was detained for two weeks and interrogated for 15 hours when he eventually confessed to the crime. He said he used vodka and a cigarette to set the fire. Earlier this year they looked into the case and three arson experts later determined that was scientifically impossible. He spent 22 years in prison wrongfully

He had a sister who was in the streets, one day he couldn’t find her. He started to take count of everyone in the streets of Detroit. Told the police about the situation but didn’t believe him and then went to Canada and crashed his car in the border portals. He asked for the FBI and he told them that he killed 10 people even though he knew he didn’t kill anyone. He just did all this to make sure the FBI would investigate the murders. At this point he was considered a murderer. At the middle of them interview they found out that was the reason for crashing his car. The FBI and William teamed up to find the actual murder. The only reason for this is because he was already taking track of all the people in the streets so people knew him already. At the end of the episode they found out were the two brothers was staying and they were walking around the property, they wouldn’t give a weapon to William because he was a suspect. The reason I put William in this essay is because he lost his leg and could be considered disabled even though he has a fake leg. At the end of the show he kills Mason because he wanted revenge on his sister. William became a person who was a murder, then became a person caring for other, then back to an actual murder in this

People with retardation should and shouldn’t have to abide the rules a so called “ normal” person has to because they don't know what they do and there are also no normal people in this world no one is normal. Have the people with disabilities have to abide by the same rules is a good thing, but at the same time not because half of the time they do but don't know what they are doing. Because it takes longer for them to comprehend what's going on at a certain time.