Roper Vs Simmons Essay

While it is not necessarily talked about that often, the death penalty is still widely used in many countries. In the supreme court case Roper v. Simmons, an individual of age 17 committed premeditated murder, as well as breaking and entering and vehicular theft. Simmons wanted Roper to be sentenced to death, but they appealed because Roper was legally a minor at the time of the crime. When the case came to the court it was a 5-4 decision that ruled the execution of minors was unconstitutional, which was unexpected because 15 years prior the case Stanford v. Kentucky the supreme court ruled that it was constitutional to execute individuals in between the ages of 18 and 15. Three years prior to Roper v. Simmons the case Atkins v. Virginia ruled that the mentally disabled cannot be executed due to the 8th Amendment. The 8th Amendment and its ideals have changed drastically over the course of history.
The 8th Amendment’s roots originated in England in the late 1400s/ early 1500s. The 8th Amendment’s basis originated in the Magna Carta, “A free man shall not be [fined] for a small offense unless according to the measure of the offense, and for a great offense he shall be [fined] according to the greatness of the offense." In 1689 this principle was put into the
In the 2005 case Roper v. Simmons, the supreme court ruled that any individual who is under the age of 18 when he commits a crime cannot be sentenced to the death penalty because it does not stand with the nation’s ‘evolving standard of decency.’ Roper v. Simmons is in very close relation to the case Graham v. Florida. Graham established the principle that no minor can be sentenced to life without parole unless they committed a homicide, and further reduced the harshest punishment a minor can receive. The interpretation of the 8ths amendment has changed much between the 1900s and early