Supreme Court Decisions

About: Supreme Court Decisions is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1804 publications have been published within this topic receiving 17066 citations.

EXECUTING YOUTHFUL OFFENDERS: THE UNANSWERED QUESTION IN EDDINGS v. OKLAHOMA

Abstract: The juvenile justice system was created to “treat” and to ”rehabilitate” the juvenile offender. But transfers to the adult criminal system allows for juvenile offenders to receive the death penalty for capital crimes. This Note examines the theories of punishment underlying the death penalty, briefly discusses the creation of the juvenile court system and the mechanism of juvenile transfer. This Note then discusses the development of the death penalty by examining Supreme Court cases which have considered state laws challenged under the eighth amendment as forms of cruel and unusual punishment. Supreme Court decisions which have extended constitutional guarantees to minors in the areas of criminal prosecutions and privacy rights also are examined. The decision of the Court in Eddings v. Oklahoma is then analyzed as with the conflicting state and federal decisions and capital punishment statutes. Finally, this Note proposes a model amendment to existing death penalty statutes which prohibits capital punishment of juveniles.

Consent Searches of Minors

Abstract: Despite the imbalance of power between police officers and citizens, courts rarely find that a search by a police officer based upon consent was involuntary. Modern courts condone this legal fiction when dealing with adults, but it is less clear what the law requires when courts weigh the voluntariness of consent to a search against the risk of coercion inherent in police encounters with minors — however subtle or overt it may be.When considering the voluntariness of a minor’s consent to a search, courts are dramatically inconsistent about the role of a minor’s age in that decision. Close analysis reveals that courts struggle to create a meaningful standard and, more often than not, appear to simply ignore minor status. That courts may consider age is not up for debate — the Supreme Court included age as a relevant factor in its seminal case addressing the standard for legality of consent searches.But as the consent search doctrine has developed, courts have shifted to a framework that frequently disregards individual characteristics of the accused in the consent analysis. Whether age can be as easily disregarded as part and parcel of this evolution, however, is a different question. Juxtaposed with the modern framework for consent searches are recent Supreme Court decisions addressing juveniles and criminal justice. These decisions reinforce and underscore that age is, in fact, different from other characteristics in the eyes of the Court.As scholars explore the broader implications of the Supreme Court’s recent attention to age in other criminal justice contexts, the role of age in the Court’s consent search doctrine is even more relevant. These decisions have created an opportunity for a “second coming” of age in the consent context — a context where age has always been relevant but where courts have struggled to find a meaningful and consistent way to consider it.This Article discusses the history of judicial treatment of consent searches and minors and the potential influence of recent Supreme Court decisions related to juveniles. The Court’s consent search doctrine as a whole is at odds with scientific research; yet, the Court’s recent cases about juveniles embrace such research, thus creating a tension between different strains of the Court’s jurisprudence. This tension is particularly relevant now that courts arguably must meaningfully consider age in the consent context. The historical analysis reveals the challenges of incorporating age into the test for voluntariness, suggesting that additional protection for minors is warranted to address the current deficiencies in the doctrine. For example, this could include requiring a reasonable suspicion standard before law enforcement can request consent searches of minors. Finally, structural reform to aid the development and growth of better defined constitutional rights of juveniles in the criminal procedural setting is overdue.

Capital Punishment: A Philosophical Rejection of Punishment by Death

Abstract: Experiencing ubiquitous contention, the correlation between execution as a form of legal punishment and morality pervades in the modern era to form a central concern for examination. Competing accounts of moral theories have provided dichotomous vindications for capital punishment, indicating a substantial strife in criminal justice morality. This thesis will examine these rival philosophies in order to assess the gravity of moral theories in Supreme Court decisions. In particular, both consequentialist and retributivist theories are analyzed with respect to their conceptualizations of punishment. After examining the death penalty’s legal history and the components of morality inherent in Supreme Court decisions, I assess that both consequentialist and retributive moral theories cannot account for the justification of the death penalty. Overall, an inherent association between morality and legal decisions is revealed that affirms that philosophy calls for the abolishment of capital punishment.