Kennedy v. Louisiana Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Kennedy v. Louisiana - Case Study Example uries were the most severe he had seen from a sexual assault in his four years of practice.† (Supreme Court of the United States, Patrick Kennedy, Petitioner v. Louisiana, 2008) The brutality of the way in which the crime was committed forced the US supreme court to declare maximum punishment for the accused. Kennedy denied the charges and he accused that the two neighboring boys were the actual culprits. The main issue in this case is about the validity of death sentence given to the accused. The Courts ruling failed to consider the federal law in the military justice system regarding the death penalty. â€Å"The Eighth Amendment bars Louisiana from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victims death† (KENNEDY v. LOUISIANA, 2008) .The Court’s Division bench who heard this case was not unanimous about their judgment. Only 5 out of the 9 judges written in favor of the death sentenced while 4 of them strongly opposed the death sentence. Most of the people in various states have opposed the capital punishment. The court cannot act based on the consensus among the public. The court needs to look into the constitution and the law for delivering their verdicts. If the capital punishment is against the public will, then it is the duty of the government to change the constitutional law regarding capital punishment. The law regarding the death sentence is included in the â€Å"Eighth Amendment — Death Penalty — Punishment for Child Rape†. (Harvard Law Review, p.296) Even this law allow death sentence to a criminal only if the victim was killed. So in unusual circumstances only the death sentence is imposed. These unusual circumstances may be perceived differently by different people. years, lack of knowledge of the victims age shall not be a defence.† (KENNEDY v. LOUISIANA, 2008) In a rape case nobody can argue that they were not aware of the victim’s age. Since the rape itself

Comparing The Success & Future Of Open & Closed Source Software Essay

Comparing The Success & Future Of Open & Closed Source Software - Essay Example This report examines the potential inherent in the Open Source Software and the factors that have hindered its widespread usage thus far. This information will then be used to arrive at an assessment of whether or not open source software could better serve the needs of public sector institutions as opposed to closed software. Open source software is not the same as freeware. Open source is software that a user can use and freely modify or distribute to others, subject to some minimal restrictions to protect the copyright license which exists on the software (Ebert, 2009). Free software on the other hand, is software that can be copied, modified or distributed without any restrictions at all.(www.chopey.blogspot.com). The opposite of freeware is closed software. This is software that is not freely available and cannot be used without restrictions; it must be purchased from the individual or company that holds the copyright over its use. The notable example of this is the proprietary Windows software owned by Bill Gates’ company, Microsoft. The design of software is viewed as an investment because it involves an investment in formulating it, but at the same time it also provides benefits in that it facilitates certain operations, which justified the costs(Slaughter et al, 1998). Where closed source software is concerned, it is the short term returns from the software that assume a greater level of importance; as a result quality may sometimes be sacrificed in order to ensure that a piece of software is produced within stipulated deadlines. (Slaughter et al, 1998). Due to this, the quality of the source code may be lacking, so that after a certain period of time it will need to be replaced, updated or modified. Since closed software is proprietary with a copyright and cannot be freely copied or modified, this often means that the Company which produced the