Response Paper on a Supreme Court 3 page maximum singe spaced
There must be no grammatical errors or spelling errors!!
CHECK FOR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS THREE TIMES BEFORE SUBMTTTING IT TO ME
Your sources is the lecture slides YOU MUST LOOK AT and the article you MUST READ.
The court court essay will McClskey vs Kemp
Your task you are to write a 3 page single spaced paper on the Supreme Court decision using the reading and lecture slides notes. You are going more than just summarizing the paper, you making an argument ( must have a thesis) using the reading for the week
we will cover a substantive topic and, at the end of the week,discuss a related Supreme Court case. Your response papers should make an argument about how well the theories and ideas discussed on Monday and Wednesday relate to, explain, or inform our understanding of that case.Good response papers do more than summarize the assigned readings.You should identify the major question(s) of the week, and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of theoretical approaches to that question, in light of how well they apply to an actual decision. Some questions to think about when starting to write: Do that week’s readings and lecture help make sense of why the Court did what it did? Why or why not? Do they leave important questions unanswered? Are concepts and ideas from earlier weeks also useful for understanding the case?
Explain contextual and institutional factors that might have influenced the Court!!!!!!!
The week topic is on Court fairness and a little on race. YOU MUST CONNECT IT TO THE LECTURE SLIDES TOPIC!!
HOW DOES THIS CASE (McCleskey vs Kemp) FURTHER EXPLAIN THIS WEEK TOPIC ON CRIMINAL LAW FAIRNESS FROM THE COURT
Background: McCleskey, a black man, was convicted of murdering a police officer in Georgia and sentenced to death. In a writ of habeas corpus, McCleskey argued that a statistical study proved that the imposition of the death penalty in Georgia depended to some extent on the race of the victim and the accused. The study found that black defendants who kill white victims are the most likely to receive death sentences in the state.
The Court held that since McCleskey could not prove that purposeful discrimination which had a discriminatory effect on him existed in this particular trial, there was no constitutional violation. Justice Powell refused to apply the statistical study in this case given the unique circumstances and nature of decisions that face all juries in capital cases. He argued that the data McCleskey produced is best presented to legislative bodies and not to the courts.
The case you must read; http://web.utk.edu/~scheb/decisions/McCleskey.htm ( LINK TO THE CASE READING )
I also want you to look at the study guide questions when writing the paper. The study guide question is for the to address. You should have answers for those questions about the case.
I want you to analyze the court decisions and arguments. In addition, you must also analyze Baldu’s evidence of racial disparities of usage of death penalty on race , specially black defendants
Chapter 11, McCleskey v. Kemp
Study Questions
These questions are designed to help you prepare for the exams.Note, however, that the questions do not cover all of the course material that you are responsible for knowing.
McCleskey’s Appeal
What was the basis of McCleskey’s appeal?
What amendments did he claim had been violated?
The Study
What group was the focus of the study?
What were the main results of the study?
When were Georgia prosecutors most likely to seek death?
Supreme Court
14th Amendment
Why did the Supreme Court reject McCleskey’s 14th Amendment argument?
What standard did the Supreme Court articulate for proving an equal protection violation?
Is it enough to demonstrate that in similar cases discrimination has occurred?
Would it be enough to show that Georgia’s legal system had discriminatory effects?
Did the Supreme Court deny that the study suggested that Georgia’s process for imposing the death penalty had discriminatory effects?
How did prosecutorial discretion affect the Court’s evaluation of McCleskey’s argument?
Why did the Court reject McCleskey’s historical argument?Did the Court do the same thing in VMI when looking at the past history of discrimination against women in VMI?
What was the “legitimate and unchallenged” explanation for McCleskey’s death sentence?
Did the Court think there was any evidence that Georgia’s legislature had acted with discriminatory purpose?Why or why not?
8th Amendment
Why did the Supreme Court reject McCleskey’s 8th Amendment argument?
How are contemporary values relevant to the interpretation of the 8th Amendment?
How are contemporary values assessed?
If a state permitted fraud to be punished by death would that violate the 8th Amendment?Why?
Why might jury nullification signal that a punishment is “cruel and unusual”?
Why is bifurcation of the guilt and penalty phases of a trial thought to make the imposition of a penalty less capricious?
What does it mean to say that a jury’s sentencing discretion is guided and objective?
Why did the Court conclude that the range of discretion that Georgia allowed to legal decision makers was constitutionally permissible?
Why did the Court think that the automatic appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court undermined McCleskey’s 8th Amendment argument?
McCleskey argued that because similarly situated defendants had not received the death penalty, it violated his 8th Amendment rights. Why did the Court disagree?
If sentencing is lenient in some cases, does that make the imposition of death arbitrary and capricious in other similar cases?
Further Issues for the Court( THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE PAPER IS THE COURT ISSUES) YOU HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THE COURT ISSUES, EXTREMELY IMPORTANT
According to the Supreme Court, which legal decision maker is best positioned to make use of the results of the Study? Why?
Why was the Supreme Court worried that if it ruled in McCleskey’s favor on the basis of the Study, the legal system could become paralyzed by appeals?
Would the Court’s holding have been any different if McCleskey had based his argument on a study that showed men were far more likely to be sentenced to death than women for committing similar crimes?
What was the Court’s vote in McCleskey (i.e., How many Justices voted in support of the Majority Opinion)?
Why might the Supreme Court refusal to admit McCleskey’s study at trial be seen as unjust?
AGAIN THINK ABUT ALL OF THESE QUESTION WHEN MAKING AN ARGUMENT. AGAIN!! YOU MUST HAVE A THESIS TO WRITE THE PAPER. WHAT ARGUMENT ARE YOU MAKING FOR COURT DECISION AND FAIRNESS IN COURT
