Federal vs State Law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Federal vs State Law - Case Study Example The manhunt that followed led police to led police to one Mr. David Harris who after being grilled pointed a finger Randall Adams as the trigger man (Gillers 117). Based on Harris’s testimony, Randall Adams convicted for murder and sentenced to death. The conviction however, later became one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in America. Mr. Adams, as would later be proved, was not the killer. In fact, he was not in Harris’s car when the officer was killed. He was only railroaded to prison because his shaggy appearance made him look like a criminal as compared to young David Harris. However, in 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for Texas to require that jurors must promise that the obligatory inconvenience of a capital punishment would not meddle with their thought of verifiable matters, for example, blame or purity, amid a trial. The case was eventually thrown out and Adams released after 12 years behind bars. The unconditionality of some of the state laws were eventually put to light as seen in the case of Adams. Thus, the need to revise such laws that predetermined a suspect’s innocence or guilt was raised.