The Pros And Cons Of Medical Punishment

Two other types of tests were created regarding insanity in 1984--the Federal Insanity Defense Reform Act and Rogers Criminal Responsibility Assessment Scales. The Federal Insanity Defense Reform Act placed the burden of proof on the defendant, and not the prosecution (Morse, 2008). The Rogers Criminal Responsibility Assessment Scales were also developed in 1984 to evaluate criminal responsibility with regard to sanity. It uses the concepts of cognitive and volitional components and is structured to

Was not in control or himself when he committed the crime. He admitted to his

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.

The mandatory minimum sentencing is about a fixed ruling of a crime that a judge is expected to deliver. Congress has enacted mandatory minimum sentencing laws. It was to impose the mandatory sentencing an offender would receive for crimes that were committed. The mandatory minimum punishment guidelines would require for judges to hand down judgement for a certain length of time. This would mean that for crimes that are committed there are criminal sentencing guidelines, this would give judges a certain discretion on how to proceed in sentencing an offender. These minimum sentencing apply to many of the crimes committed on society, such as violent, drug-related crimes and for those habitual offenders. In cases where the offender commits a crime and is a repeat offender then it should be left up the presiding judge to serve out justice. People who commit low level crimes should be punished but not to the extent of going to prison for a long period of time. Congress has enacted these guidelines so that the criminal justice system would not be burden with smaller crimes or be overwhelmed. Lengthy sentencing hearings seldom are necessary, the disputes about sentencing elements must be resolved with sensitivity concern and carefulness. A dispute exists about any factor important to the sentencing determination then a judge will use his discretion to hand down equal and fair judgement. Legislator statements during debates on mandatory

Debate over capital punishment is nothing new, but it reaches a whole new level when the accused is mentally ill. The question then becomes… was the perpetrator aware of his heinous actions by knowing right from wrong at the time of the crime or was the mental illness controlling his actions? While being sympathetic to the grief and heart break of the victim’s loved ones, I believe that execution for the mentally ill should not be allowed, because often their illness makes them incapable of knowing right and wrong of their actions. Many of those with mental illnesses often go undiagnosed and untreated, either by choice or by financial circumstances, because of the stigma and general lack of understanding associated with this type of diagnosis in our society.

There are laws and decisions of United States government and higher orders that present controversy to the people of America. In the state of Texas the application of the death penalty is difficult to interpret, especially for the mentally ill, because there is no written law or bill that explains the execution implication in complete detail. The death penalty is a capital punishment of death for those who have committed such high crime. This penalty goes for everyone who does such act no matter who you are, how rich how poor, or where you stand in society. For the longest time, even with the mindset and understanding that those who commit crime to a certain level can receive the execution punishment, the concern and debate whether the mentally

Mark was found outside the only exit Nancy could use, in his pickup truck drunk and asleep. When the police officer arrived, they had charged mark with an invasion of privacy for violating the terms of the protective order and public intoxication. Then the state of Indiana charged mark with attempted murder, a jury trial was held and the jury found Mark guilty. Mark was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison and after completing his time five years of probation. The Indiana court had accepted mark collier appeal for his attempted murder charge, Mark had said that the evidence was insufficient and his acts were a preparation for the murder. The acts that mark had done makes the courts believe that mark was going to go through with the crime. The facts that were presented to the jury would make them believe that Mark had to take the substantial step for the crime of attempted murder. If Mark was awake, was going into the hospital, and opened to door, Mark would be guilty of attempted murder. The Indiana Supreme Court made a decision that mark was not guilty of attempted murder. Mark was not near Nancy since he was in the back of the parking

There were a total of seventeen crime scenes due to his actions. The parents believe that they unfairly treated this crime because they failed to consider that their son had a mental illness and also failed to prevent such things from happening. The victims killed were George Chen, Cheng Yuan Hong, Weihan Wang, Katherine Breann Cooper, Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, and Veronika Elizabeth Weiss.

Because of the failed objective, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said that a person cannot get rid of his/her death sentence unless surmounting a Texas rule that is analogous federal rule. The Almanza v. State case made Texas adopt a rule stating that a criminal defendant who does not object to the jury’s instruction will not receive a reversal just because the instruction mistake was harmful. Instead, the defendant must meet a heightened standard, but if the standard is not met the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will make the petitioner’s sentence stand (Kennedy).

Holding: yes the 8th amendment does protect mentally retarded criminals from capital punishment as cruel and unusual.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported 6.7 million people were supervised by adult correctional systems in the United States at year end 2015. President Obama has conveyed tax payer pay $80 billion dollars to house incarcerate individuals yearly. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 limited federal judge sentencing discretions. In 1980 the USA had 500k people incarcerated, the population of prisoners has more than doubled the last two decades. The United States Mandatory sentencing requires offenders receive a predetermined minimum sentencing for some offenses. Since the implementation of mandatory sentencing, prison populations have risen sharply with sky rocking costs. On certain offenses, Federal judges no longer have discretion on the sentence length. Mandatory sentencing laws have shifted the power of punishment to the prosecutor as they have the discretion of charges brought against offenders. According to Peter Wagner and Bernadette Rabuy in their article “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2017,” the United State criminal justice leads the world in the percentage of its citizens incarcerated. Mandatory minimum sentencing has led to large prison populations, skyrocketing costs and social family challenges.

Mandatory sentencing is another form of structured sentencing, deserves special mention. Mandatory sentencing is just what its name implies: A structured sentencing scheme that man-dates clearly enumerated punishments for specific offenses or for habitual offenders convicted of a series of crimes. Mandatory sentencing, because it is truly mandatory, differs from presumptive sentencing, which allows at least a limited amount of judicial discretion within ranges established by published guidelines.

This article concerns a Texas man named Scott Panetti who committed murder by shooting his wife’s parents. Scott Panetti was diagnosed with schizophrenia about 14 years prior to the shootings, and was set to receive a lethal injection; however, the execution was stop do to “the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledges the legal complexity of putting a mentally ill inmate to death.” The court explains that they had to sort out legal issues that are involved with mental instability.

Mr. Charles Laverne Singleton known as the “convicted murder” in a Arkansas prison was immediately put onto the death row after murdering Mary Lou York; an Hamburg store owner on June 1, 1979. After being incarcerated for some time many started to notice that Singleton had a sufficient amount of problems going on in his life. One the biggest issues that made his murder case very significant to this day is suffering from a disorder known as “Schizophrenia” while being on the death row list. There were lots of reports stating that Singleton was being forced by correctional officers in the Arkansas prison to take antipsychotic drugs to make him sane enough to execute. The case became so important that the matter had to be placed into the U.S. Supreme Court hands to be handled further. During, the year of 1986 Supreme Court decided that the decision of the execution style on this young man was unconstitutional due to him being mentally insane. The argument provided in Mr. Singleton case has compelled many emotions within many individuals such as myself; to decide on the decision of whether singleton should receive the execution or not.

. The ruling held that the government may involuntarily administer antipsychotic medications to a mentally ill criminal defendant in order to render him competent to stand trial. Based on prior case law, I believe the court in certain situation should allow this to happen and should be on a case by case