Roper V. Simmons Case Study

Christopher Simmons who was attending high school and eighteen years old at the time was arrested. He was transported to the Fenton police station in Missouri. Simmons was read his Miranda Rights by an officer and he waived his right to have an attorney present during questioning. Simmons agreed to speak with investigators. After being interrogated for nearly two hours Simmons confessed to the murder of Mrs. Crook and agreed to allow the police to videotape him reenacting the murder at the initial crime scene.

Rinaker vs Superior Court case is a juvenile delinquency proceeding minors, Christopher G. and Huy D, are charged with committing vandalism. Minors were allegedly convicted with throwing rocks at Arsenio Torres’s car. Torres later brought a civil harassment case against the minors, which began the process of mediation in an effort to resolve the civil harassment action.

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

Christopher Simmons was 17 years old when he committed murder, he was arrested in September of 1993 after bragging to his school mates about killing an individual. Simmons thought because of his age the court will be lenient on him. The jury easily found him guilty, he was facing the death penalty. His attorney argued that the courts should take his age into consideration when sentencing Simmons, after all he was a minor when the murder was committed he was not old enough to vote or legally by a drink. The jury sentenced Simmons to death by lethal injection the deciding factor for them was the brutal nature that the crime of how the crime was committed. His case was then appealed to the Supreme court his attorney’s citing his

On the fourth of July in 1776 the United States became an independent nation. At that point in time, the foundation for a formal legal system was put into place. One of the oldest sources of law is the common law, which dates back to the colonial days. In the case of Davis v. Baugh, the common law rule was used in the first court trial. Common law refers back to precedent cases of similar disputes and assists the judge in making a decision after comparing both cases. Utilizing this ruling to resolve disputes in court is very helpful because it provides uniformity in court. This rule also provides an expectation of what the verdict will be based off the prior cases. Most importantly, common law allows the judge to remain neutral without the implication of personal bias on each case (Meiners, 2012, pp. 9-10).

In Missouri during 1993, Christopher Simmons, a 17-year old, committed capital murder after he instigated two other juveniles (Benjamin and Tessmer) to conspire to kidnap and murder an innocent woman named Shirley Crook. It was never completely determined why exactly Simmons wished to murder Crook, however, he did later admit that Crook was involved in a previous car accident with Simmons. At approximately 2 a.m. on the night of the murder, Simmons and his two friends met up to break into the home of Crook, but Tessmer left before Simmons and Benjamin decided to go through with the heinous crime. Simmons and Benjamin broke into the home of Crook, entered her room, covered her eyes and mouth using duct tape, and bound her hands together. The

(1) Whether a plaintiff must plead and prove willful and wanton conduct in order to

As children, we have all stepped that “boundary” between right and wrong. From stealing money to shoplifting to fighting, we have all made our parents frustrated, made poor decisions, and perhaps, even made a egregious mistake. However, when does stepping that “boundary” become irremediable? Can the government punish minors under the same criteria they do with adults? And most importantly, what does the United States Constitution say? These are all questions that both the Missouri Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court had to consider when they dived into the case of Roper v. Simmons. To provide a little historical

Facts: This case consists of Hereford a criminal informant who gets information of narcotic laws to Officer Marsh; a federal narcotic agent with 29 years on the job. Hereford had been feeding Marsh information for close to 6 months and that information was accurate and reliable. In the early days of September 1956, Hereford told Officer Marsh that the defendant James Draper was distributing illegal narcotics throughout Denver. Several days later, Hereford told Marsh that in the days before Draper went to Chicago and set to return with several ounces of heroin. Along with the information given Hereford gave a physical description of Draper, which included his age, weight, race, and clothes that he had

Throughout an 18-hour period on October 26, 1989, the appellant Marc Creighton, a companion Frank Caddedu and the deceased Kimberley Ann Martin consumed a large quantity of alcohol and cocaine. The afternoon of the following day on October 27, the three planned to share a quantity of cocaine at Ms. Martin’s apartment. The evidence and later testimony indicates that all of the members involved are experienced cocaine users. The appellant acquired 3.5 grams (“an eight-ball”) of cocaine; he did not try to determine the quality or potency of the cocaine before injecting it into himself and Frank Caddedu.

In other words, Billy White would have been classified as mentally retarded or intellectually disabled. In 2002 Atkins v. Virginia ruled that executing mentally retarded individuals violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Unfortunately, during the time White was executed there was nothing in place to protect the intellectually disabled.

Facts: In 1974, Ehlich Anthony Coker, who was serving a number of sentences for murder, rape, kidnapping, and assault, escaped from prison. He broke into Allen and Elnita Carver’s home, raped and kidnapped the woman, and stole their car. Coker was convicted of rape, armed robbery, and the other offenses. The Georgia courts sentenced him the death penalty.

Christopher Simmons, seven months shy of his 18th birthday, planned and implemented the murder of an innocent woman.

My role as Allen Brookson is significant in the case of Brookson v. Carter because I was the first to be wrongfully attacked by Wendell Carter. My role will help to prove that Carter is guilty for various reasons, and why Allen Brookson and Fred Brookson should be offered compensations for both severe physical and posttraumatic stress. The physical injuries sustained were taken to the hospital that resulted in a detrimental medical expense and traumatic stress such has weight loss, chronic anxiety, and insomnia. Essentially, the Brooksons should win this case because Carter committed a Class B misdemeanor by illegally carrying a knife that can injury someone, and we will, too, because of Assault of the third degree, Carter committed assault

To even further Simmons’ immatureness and poor logic, he went around the town bragging about the murder by saying, he murdered her “because the bitch seen my face” (Legal Research Institute). A few days after the crime was committed, Mrs. Crook’s husband arrived home to find his house in a terrible mess and his wife gone. A fisherman down at the Meramec River had stumbled across Mrs. Crook’s body the very same day her husband arrived home and reported her missing. The following day, Simmons was arrested at his school and charged with the murder of Shirley Crook. Naïve and uneducated on the law, Simmons waived his rights upon his arrival at the Fenton, Missouri police station. He spent a total of two hours in an interrogation room where he confessed and reenacted the murder. After the confession and the grueling details of the murder were unleashed, the State charged him with burglary, kidnaping, stealing, and murder all in the first degree. The State was after the death penalty for Mr. Simmons. Due to Christopher Simmons only being seventeen at the time of the crimes, he ended up being outside of the jurisdiction of Missouri’s juvenile court system. From 1993 to 2002, Simmons’ defense attorney sent an enormous amount of appeals to the state and federal courts of Missouri, but all appeals were denied. His defense