JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW exam #4 -- 8th Amendment
NAME: ____________________________
___ 1. Which of the following is a measuring stick for determining whether or not a punishment violates the 8th Amendment?
a. excessive
b. disproportionate
c. arbitrary
d. unusual
e. all of the above
Explain what the measuring stick(s) you picked means.
The following questions have yes/no answers. In each case, explain your answer in the spaces provided, using the constitutional justification employed by the Supreme Court:
____ 2. Mr. Joyce commits 1st degree (capital) murder. He is sentenced to death by burning at the stake. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
___ 3. Mr. Joyce commits 1st degree (capital) murder. He is sentenced to death by electrocution. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 4. Mr. Joyce commits 1st degree (capital) murder. He is mentally disabled. He is sentenced to death by electrocution. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
___ 5. Mr. Joyce commits 1st degree (capital) murder. He is 16 (I wish). He is sentenced to death by electrocution. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 6. Mr. Joyce is convicted of manslaughter. He is sentenced to death by lethal injection. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 7. ___ 5. Mr. Joyce commits 1st degree (capital) murder. He is denied a lawyer at his trial. He is sentenced to death. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer
___ 8. Mr. Joyce is convicted of aggravated robbery and assault. He is sentenced to 10 years in prison. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 9. Mr. Joyce is convicted of aggravated robbery and assault. He is sentenced to 2 years at a work camp that requires 16 hour work days, even in extreme weather. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 10. Mr. Joyce is a serial rapist that is found guilty on all sexual assault charges. Which punishment can the jury NOT choose to give Mr. Joyce?
a. life in prison without parole
b. death penalty
Why didn't you pick the other option?
11. Does anything change in the above answer if Mr. Joyce is 16?
____ 12. Mr. Joyce is convicted of money laundering, with help from overseas networks. Can you as the district attorney suggest to the jury that they punish Mr. Joyce by taking away his natural-born U.S. citizenship?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 13. Mr. Joyce is a habitual offender who has had 5 children with 4 different women. Two of his adult children are currently in prison and two others have been in and out of the juvenile corrections system. Mr. Joyce has been caught and found guilty of another crime that will send him to prison. The jury has added another punishment that Mr. Joyce is to be sterilized to break the cycle of crime that he is producing. You are a Supreme Court justice who reviews this case. What is your ruling?
a. uphold the punishment
b. overturn the punishment
Explain your ruling:
ESSAY ANALYSIS:Write in your journal, with complete sentences, in paragraph(s), as a Supreme Court justice would in deciding an appeals case brought to him/her, how you would decide the case of NELSON V. HEYNE.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO WRITE, read the one -page excerpt ("Prisons for Children") from a book that led to the lawsuit in Nelson v. Heyne. THEN, read the introduction to the lower court's decision in NELSON and the lower court's opinion deciding the lawsuit. NOTICE that the lower court decision in Heyne came out in 1974, 3 years before the U.S. Supreme Court decided Ingraham v. Wright (1977). Assume that the appeals from the lower court decision reach the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978, after the Ingraham decision is reached. Using Ingraham as your precedent case, decide Nelson v. Heyne.
___ 1. Which of the following is a measuring stick for determining whether or not a punishment violates the 8th Amendment?
a. excessive
b. disproportionate
c. arbitrary
d. unusual
e. all of the above
Explain what the measuring stick(s) you picked means.
The following questions have yes/no answers. In each case, explain your answer in the spaces provided, using the constitutional justification employed by the Supreme Court:
____ 2. Mr. Joyce commits 1st degree (capital) murder. He is sentenced to death by burning at the stake. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
___ 3. Mr. Joyce commits 1st degree (capital) murder. He is sentenced to death by electrocution. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 4. Mr. Joyce commits 1st degree (capital) murder. He is mentally disabled. He is sentenced to death by electrocution. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
___ 5. Mr. Joyce commits 1st degree (capital) murder. He is 16 (I wish). He is sentenced to death by electrocution. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 6. Mr. Joyce is convicted of manslaughter. He is sentenced to death by lethal injection. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 7. ___ 5. Mr. Joyce commits 1st degree (capital) murder. He is denied a lawyer at his trial. He is sentenced to death. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer
___ 8. Mr. Joyce is convicted of aggravated robbery and assault. He is sentenced to 10 years in prison. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 9. Mr. Joyce is convicted of aggravated robbery and assault. He is sentenced to 2 years at a work camp that requires 16 hour work days, even in extreme weather. Is this punishment constitutional?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 10. Mr. Joyce is a serial rapist that is found guilty on all sexual assault charges. Which punishment can the jury NOT choose to give Mr. Joyce?
a. life in prison without parole
b. death penalty
Why didn't you pick the other option?
11. Does anything change in the above answer if Mr. Joyce is 16?
____ 12. Mr. Joyce is convicted of money laundering, with help from overseas networks. Can you as the district attorney suggest to the jury that they punish Mr. Joyce by taking away his natural-born U.S. citizenship?
a. yes
b. no
Explain your answer:
____ 13. Mr. Joyce is a habitual offender who has had 5 children with 4 different women. Two of his adult children are currently in prison and two others have been in and out of the juvenile corrections system. Mr. Joyce has been caught and found guilty of another crime that will send him to prison. The jury has added another punishment that Mr. Joyce is to be sterilized to break the cycle of crime that he is producing. You are a Supreme Court justice who reviews this case. What is your ruling?
a. uphold the punishment
b. overturn the punishment
Explain your ruling:
ESSAY ANALYSIS:Write in your journal, with complete sentences, in paragraph(s), as a Supreme Court justice would in deciding an appeals case brought to him/her, how you would decide the case of NELSON V. HEYNE.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO WRITE, read the one -page excerpt ("Prisons for Children") from a book that led to the lawsuit in Nelson v. Heyne. THEN, read the introduction to the lower court's decision in NELSON and the lower court's opinion deciding the lawsuit. NOTICE that the lower court decision in Heyne came out in 1974, 3 years before the U.S. Supreme Court decided Ingraham v. Wright (1977). Assume that the appeals from the lower court decision reach the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978, after the Ingraham decision is reached. Using Ingraham as your precedent case, decide Nelson v. Heyne.