Georgia Case Brief: Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977) (Case Study Sample)

COKER V. GEORGIA
Institution
Name
Date
COKER v. GEORGIA, 433 U.S. 584 (1977) (heading)
COKER, Respondent (1st party)
V.
GEORGIA, Appellant (2nd party)
U.S. Supreme Court (court name)
June 29, 1977 (date of the decision)
433(page no.) U.S. 584 (1977)

Facts of the case
On 2nd September 1974, Coker (the defendant) ran away from a Georgia prison, where he had been convicted of various criminal acts, such as homicide, rape, kidnapping, and assault. During the night, Ehrlich Coker got into the house of Allen and Elnita Carver. Coker intimidated the two, tied up Mr. Carver, and took his money, and several other items like keys, and a knife from the kitchen. He then raped Mrs. Carver, who was sixteen years old, kidnapped her and drove off with her in Mr. Carver’s vehicle. Mr. Carver succeeded to untie himself and alerted police, who swiftly incarcerated Coker. Coker was accused of various felonies, one of which was the act rape of Mrs. Carver. Under Georgia Supreme Court, rape is a violation of the law carrying a punishment of death only if there is a particular exasperating state of affairs, as demarcated by statute. As a result, the jury was given instructions by the court that it could consider passing on capital punishment if it realized that Coker had a previous conviction for a major criminal act or if it established that the act of rape was done during the order of another capital crime. The jury found both exasperating circumstances occurred since Coker had previously been imprisoned for capital offenses and the rape crime he committed while armed as a burglar. As a result, the jury sentenced Coker to a capital punishment. The Georgia Supreme Court avowed, and the U.S. Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari (Coker v. Georgia 1977).
LEGAL ISSUES
The legal issue surrounding the case was whether the imposition of the death sentence was a proportionate punishment deserved by the defendant or not. Capital punishment is a practice of cruelty and uncommon penalty prohibited by The Eighth Amendment. This constitutional adjustment forbids the federal legal systems from imposing disproportionate fines, HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruel_and_unusual_punishment" \o "Cruel and unusual punishment"cruel or unusual corporal punishments (Eighth Amendment | United States Constitution | Britannica.com, 2016)
COURT DECISION
Mr. Justice White, in conjunction with three others, Mr. Justice Stewart, Mr. Justice Blackmun, And Mr. Justice Stevens, decided that the ruling of death penalty for the offense of rape was completely inconsistent with the law and is thus outlawed by the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution (Coker v. Georgia 1977). The Eighth Amendment forbids those penalties considered cruel as well those that are extreme in relation to the offense committed by the defendant. A sentence is disproportionate and illegitimate if it makes no quantifiable input to the satisfactory goals of punishment and therefore is nothing more than unreasonable and unnecessary imposition of pain and suffering. Besides, according to the court panel, a penalty is considered extreme if it is unacceptably disproportionate to the severity of the offence (Coker v. Georgia 1977). The fact that death sentence is out of proportion with the consequence of rape is well pointed out by the objective indication of existing public ruling. Public judgment is represented by the attitude of federal governing bodies and juries responsible for passing sentences. Concerning the appropriateness of such a punishment, the impression is that Georgia is at present the only State sanctioning the death prison term for rape of an adult woman (Coker v. Georgia 1977). The judges held that according to the law the death sentence is legitimate for rape if only the victim is a child.
Even though an act of rape requires severe punishment, the capital punishment, which is distinctive in its harshness and cruelty, can be argued to be an excessive punishment for the rapist who unlike a murderer does not unduly take away human life. The offender, therefore, does not deserve a death penalty since the previous convictions do not alter the fact that the act of rape did not encompass taking away of the victim’s life. Besides, the panel did not deem the offense of burglary itself deserving the death consequence, despite the fact that it was accompanied by the aggravating state of affairs of previous capital-felony accusations (Coker v. Georgia 1977).
OPINION AND REASONING OF THE COURT
Mr. Justice Brennan settled that the death sentence is barbaric and an unusual penalty forbidden by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. According to Mr. Justice Marshall, the capital punishment is a cruel and infrequent chastisement outlawed by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Mr. Justice Powell resolved that a death sentence is a lop-sided form of punishment for the criminality of raping an adult woman where, the offense was not carried out with extreme cruelty, and the affected did not endure severe or long-lasting injuries (Coker v. Georgia 1977). Mr. Justice White publicized the judgment of the Supreme Court and provided an opinion, in which Stewart, Stevens, and Blackmun joined.
CONCURRING OPINION (byJustices Brennan, Powell, and Marshall)
Justices Brennan and Marshall concurred with the Supreme Court ruling since according to them, the death penalty is an unpleasant and unusual punishment under every circumstance. Besides, Justice Powell coincided that the sentence of death for rape offense is wrong in this particular case. According to them, the capital punishment is a unique imprisonment sentence in the sense that it is irreversible once executed and instead should be evicted. Life sentence punishment is suitable for proportionate wrongdoings such as homicide or murder. Coker, in this case, is a rapist and a kidnapper and causes no enduring harm to Mrs. Carver (Coker v. Georgia 1977).
DISSENTING OPINION
Chief Justice HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Burger" \o "Warren Burger"Burger in conjunction with Justice HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rehnquist" \o "William Rehnquist"Rehnquist, provided dissenting opinions since according to them the principle of proportionality in the Court of law embedded on the Eighth Amendment immensely influenced the lawmaking power of the states. Justice Burger decided to lay more emphasis on the contracted details of the case. He questioned the court ruling whether it was lawful for Georgia Supreme Court to impose the death punishment on Coker, the defendant, a convict who had run away from prison while serving a prison term for a homicide only to commit a rape offense on a young woman. According to Burger, irrespective of the court's views on the matter, this case scenario discloses a habitual rapist criminal whose persistent threat to the entire community cannot be doubted. Burger argued that other nations also imposed cruel punishments for illegal activities which seemed habitual. He held that the 8th Amendment does not inhibit the State from taking punitive actions against any individual accused of endangering lives since they will curb further maltreatment upon the innocent victim...