By: Brittany Easter

Juveniles Who Commit Violent Crimes Should be Tried as Adults

• All but 5 States try children of any age charged with murder to be tried as adults.

• Fundamental Question: “Are children capable of understanding the consequences of their actions?”

If a juvenile commits a capital crime, they should be tried as adults.

Capital Punishment

• U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional to anyone who hasn’t celebrated their 16th birthday• Some states consider 16- and 17- year olds for death penalty

• Recent polls illustrate that 55% of Americans believe the crime, not the perp’s age, should be the determining factor in sentencing.

Poll on Death Penalty

CrimeAge

Do Americans Favor the Death Penalty for Juveniles?

Juveniles who experience abuse as children are more likely to turn to violent acts during the adolescent and adult years.

• More than 3 women/day are murdered by their abusive spouses in the U.S.• 2-million injuries/year to

women• Many of the women who are

hurt are mothers who go to extreme measures attempting to protect their children from their spouses.

Facts on Children and Domestic Violence

• Growing up in a violent home may be a traumatic experience that can affect every aspect of a child’s life, growth, and development.

•Children of mothers who experience prenatal physical domestic violence are at an increased risk of exhibiting aggressive, anxious, depressed, or hyperactive behavior.

Domestic Violence Affects Children

• Exposed females• Parents’ domestic violence• Dating issues

Domestic Violence Affects Children Cont’d

• Children who experience childhood trauma are at a greater risk of health problems including:• Tobacco use• Substance abuse• Obesity• Cancer• Heart disease• Depression• Higher risk of unintended pregnancy

Affects Cont’d…

•“Physical abuse during childhood increases risk of future victimizing among women and the future perpetration of abuse by men more than two-fold (“Facts on Children and Domestic Violence”).”

• Jesse Pomeroy• Mary Flora Bell and Nora Bell• Willie Bosket• Cindy Collier• Edmund Kemper• Joshua Phillips

There have been cases where children were abused and went and committed sadistic crimes just for fun.

There have also been cases where juveniles have committed violent crimes and tried to say that the rulings violated the U.S. Constitution Amendments.

•Miller v. Alabama•Jackson v. Hobbs•Roper v. Simmons•Graham v. Florida

*These case rulings and sentencing were said to have violated a juvenile’s Eighth Amendment rights.

U.S. SUPREME COURT CASES INVOLVING JUVENILE SENTENCING

Information on Some of Those Cases:

• Name: Evan Miller• Age at Time of Crime: 14• Place: Alabama• Background: Evan Miller and friend Cody Smith went to a neighbor’s house

in search of drugs and instead found baseball cards and $300. They beat the neighbor and left him laying unconscious as they set the house on fire.• Miller was sentenced to life without parole.• He tried to say that life without parole violated his Eighth Amendment

rights.• The U.S. Supreme Court Justices ruled that it did not violate that right.

Miller v. Alabama

• Name: Kuntrell Jackson• Age at Time of Crime: 14• Place: Arkansas• Background: Kuntrell Jackson was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of

parole for felony-murder when his cousin killed a shop attendant during a robbery.• Arkansas law made a life-without-parole sentence mandatory, so neither Jackson’s age nor

the fact that he was not the triggerman entered into the sentencing consideration.• After the Arkansas Supreme Court declared Jackson’s conviction, a state court denied

Jackson’s petition for habeas corpus in which he argued that a life-without-parole sentence on a fourteen-year-old constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

• Respondent, Arkansas Department of Corrections Director Ray Hobbs, asserts that such a sentence is constitutionally permissible and in line with national standards.

Jackson v. Hobbs

• Name: Terrance Jamar Graham• Age at Time of the Crime: 16• Place: Florida• Background: Terrance Jamar Graham, along with two accomplices, attempted to rob a barbecue

restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida in July 2003.• Graham was arrested for the robbery attempt and was charged as an adult for armed burglary with

assault and battery, as well as attempted armed robbery, with the first charge being a first degree felony that is punishable by life.

• He pled guilty and his plea was accepted.• Six months later, on December 2, 2003, Graham was arrested again for home invasion robbery.• Graham denied involvement, but he acknowledged that he was in violation of his plea agreement.• In 2006, the presiding judge sentenced Graham to life in prison, and because Florida abolished

parole, it became a sentence without parole.

Graham v. Florida

• Name: Christopher Simmons• Age at Time of Crime: 17 (1993)• Place: Missouri• Background: Simmons had devised a plan to kill neighbor Shirley Crook. The original plan was to include

two of Simmons’s younger friends: Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer. The plan was to commit murder by aggravated burglary, tying up the victim, and tossing her off a bridge. Tessmer dropped out of the plot before the murder took place. Simmons and Benjamin broke into Mrs. Crook's home, hog-tied and covered her eyes. They drove her to a state park and threw her off a bridge.

• Simmons had confessed to the crime and even performed a videotaped reenactment at the crime scene.

• There was testimony from Tessmer against him that showed premeditation.• The jury returned a guilty verdict.• The jury recommended a death sentence, which the trial court imposed. • The case worked its way up the court system, with the courts continuing to uphold the death sentence. • After the case having been tried through the Supreme Court, Simmons was sentenced to life without

parole.

Roper v. Simmons

Questions or Comments?