SAMPLE ARTICLE
WRITE-UP Your
Name (first & last)
CONSTITUTION STUDY Today’s
date, Period __
(typed,
12pt font, double or 1 ½ spaced) Article summary #__
US
Supreme Court
(ex. state which req.
article)
“Justice debate death for minors”
The
article, “Justice debate death penalty for minors”, appeared in the
Thursday, October 14, 2004 issue
of the Anchorage Daily News. The
Supreme
Court is considering the idea of
raising the minimum age of the death penalty
for young murders. I chose this
article because the court has already abolished
capital punishment for the
mentally retarded, and I think the time has come to
consider all minors. It relates to me because I am under the age
of 18 and see
more serious crimes being
committed by young adults.
The
Supreme Court justices are arguing over the need to limit capital
punishment to youthful
killers. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is
concerned
“juveniles run in gangs;” he
believed “that gang members would dodge the death
penalty by recruiting their
youngest members as the ‘hit man’.” Most
states limit
the death penalty to 18 years or
have no death penalty law according to the map
in the article, while “19 states
permit prosecutors to seek a death sentence for
murders who are 16-17”. The article goes on to tell about the
a man who abducted a woman and
tied her up with duct tape and threw her into a river.
At the time of the murder, the
man was 17 years old and bragged that he would not
get caught. The jury “convicted him and sentenced him to
die”, but the
Supreme Court voided the decision
and sentenced him to life behind bars, so the
state attorney general filed for
an appeal. He believed that elected
lawmakers
should be the ones to change the
age for capital punishment, not the judges.
In
my opinion, I would have to agree with the
James Layton. Each state should have the right to decide
its own laws in this regard.
The general population will have
different issues in each state and the concerns of the
population should be taken into
consideration by the lawmakers, not the courts.
It’s
scary to think that young kids
could be doing murdering for gang leaders.
(the
student handout includes the original article…main ideas must be highlighted
for points)