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McClesky v. Kemp
This was an event in which a robber of African-American descent shot and killed a white police officer. In the court case that followed McClesky was sentenced to death but with habeus corpus he brought up and fought that as he was black, statistics show that he is over 4x likely to be sentenced to death, showing the racial tensions involved in the death penalty and court and likely proving that innocent victims could have been sentenced to death just because of race. -
Penry v. Lynaugh
This court case sparked the long argued topic of mentally unstable offenders. The case stated that although Penry may be mentally retarded, it was not a "cruel and unusual punishment" and thus did not violate the 8th amendment. The irony of this case in dealing with a "cruel and unusual punishment" argued whether the death penalty was even constitutional and the case of metally unstable persons wrongfully convicted to death. -
AEDPA
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act was created to decrease the power of habeus corpus. This made it difficult for judges to recall the death penalty sentence which in turn sparked much adversity. Also made defendants less likely to be found innocent which in turn could send innocent people to their death. -
Conneticut Repeals
Just a few weeks ago the govenor of Conneticut signed a bill that destroyed the death penalty in that state. The signing of this made the state the 15th one to get rid of the penalty and also the 5th one in five years, showing that the death penalty has become outdated and now seen as a violation of rights and unconstitutional.
