Appeals
Thompson's attorneys first attempted to appeal the case on the fact that inflammatory photographs were used by the prosecution to provoke the jury. Although the court did find that two of the photographs should have been excluded from the trial, the overwhelming evidence meant that the case was affirmed by the court.
Then, due to his quickly approaching execution, his attorneys filed his case with the Supreme Court, saying that the execution of a juvenile was unconstitutional under the Eight Amendment's "Cruel and Unusual Punishment" clause. The Court deliberated and made its decision June 29, 1988. They voted 5-3 in favor of Thompson, with Justice Anthony Kennedy not taking part in the case. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion and Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the minority opinion.
Read more about this topic: Thompson V. Oklahoma
Famous quotes containing the word appeals:
“The poetry of heroism appeals irresistibly to those who don’t go to a war, and even more to those whom the war is making enormously wealthy. It’s always so.”
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894–1961)
“Whatever appeals to the imagination, by transcending the ordinary limits of human ability, wonderfully encourages and liberates us.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The private citizen, beset by partisan appeals for the loan of his Public Opinion, will soon see, perhaps, that these appeals are not a compliment to his intelligence, but an imposition on his good nature and an insult to his sense of evidence.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)