Missouri v. Christopher Simmons

	Early September 1993, 17-year-old Christopher Simmons discussed committing burglary and murder with two of his friends.
	At about 2 A.M. on September 8th, 1993, Simmons met with h his two friends to carry out the plan they had made.
	They entered Shirley Crook's house by entering a back window. When she woke up they bound her hands together and taped her eyes and mouth shut.
	Then they put her in the back of her minivan and drove her to a ledge, which drops off into the Meramec River.
	The body was found later that day by two fishermen.
	On September 10th, Simmons was arrested at his high school.
	Simmons was questioned by the police without the advice of counsel or a parents. He was told by arresting officers that he was facing life in prison or death, and even though there was no solid evidence against him, he was told that it was in his best interest to confess. So, he confessed.
	Prior to the trial the district attorney concluded that life in prison would be appropriate, and offered Simmons a plea of life in prison. Simmons' father advised him to take the plea when his mother told him not to.
	He decided not to take the plea and went to trial. Simmons was convicted of murdering Shirley Crook and was sentenced to the death penalty at age 17.
	A series of appeals to state and federal courts lasted until 2002, but each appeal was rejected. Then, in 2002, the Missouri Supreme Court stayed Simmon's execution while the U.S. Supreme Court decided Atkins v. Virginia, a case that dealt with the execution of the mentally ill.
	After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing the mentally ill violated the Eighth and 14th Amendment prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment because a majority of Americans found it cruel and unusual, the Missouri Supreme Court decided to reconsider Simmons' case.
	The Court ruled that standards of decency have evolved so that executing minors is "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.

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