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EXECUTION OF MENTALLY CHALLENGED PERSONS This r

case), Chief Justice Earl Warren commented,

"Whatever the arguments may be against capital punishment,

. . . the death penalty has been employed throughout our

history, and in a day when it is still widely accepted, it

cannot be said to violate the constitutional concept of

During the post-World War II period, public enthusiasm for capital punishment waned. The number of persons executed in the United States for capital crimes declined from 199 in 1935 to 56 in 1960 (Megivern, 1997, p. 329). Widespread revulsion against capital punishment led to its abolition in almost all European nations and in a few American states. Considerable evidence appeared that suggested that it had been applied disproportionately against black defendants convicted of murder or rape, especially in the South. In his concurring opinion in Furman at p. 365, Justice Thurgood Marshall said that "negroes were executed far more often than whites in proportion to their percentage of the population."

Furman and its aftermath. In Furman, a 5-4 majority concluded that the capital punishment schemes of Georgia and Texas violated the Eighth Amendment. In the published opinions of the more liberal justices, William Douglas, William Brennan and Marshall, capital punishment is depicted as degrading and barbaric which, Brennan at p. 270 said ran counter to "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society." These Justices also denied that capital punishment served legitimate penal purposes such as deterrence or retribution. However, other 'swing' Justices on the Court, such as Potter Stewart and Byron White, were unwilling to find that capital punishment per se violated the Eighth Amendment. In his dissent in Atkins at p. 352, Justice Antonin Scalia said they joined the majority because "since there were no standards as to when it [the death penalty] would be applied to a particular crime, it created too great a ri...

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EXECUTION OF MENTALLY CHALLENGED PERSONS This r. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:25, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700494.html