Search Results for: cruel AND unusual punishment

Amnesty International reiterated its calls to stop the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama by nitrogen hypoxia. The date for execution has been set for January 25, 2024. In urging Alabama to cancel the execution, Justin Mazzola, a researcher at Amnesty International, stated: The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment, [...]

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The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called on Alabama state authorities Tuesday to cancel the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, which is scheduled to take place next week by nitrogen hypoxia. Türk reemphasized human rights concerns regarding the potential consequences of the untested execution method. According to the statement, execution by nitrogen [...]

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On Jan. 25, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) plans to execute Kenneth Smith by forcing him to breathe pure nitrogen gas, an untested execution method with profound legal and ethical consequences. Death penalty abolitionists worldwide have railed against this form of capital punishment, but these efforts have thus far failed to alter the state’s [...]

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Four UN experts urged US officials on Wednesday to cancel the execution of an inmate in Alabama by nitrogen hypoxia. Kenneth Smith, who was sentenced to life without parole in 1988 after being convicted for murder, is scheduled to be executed on January 25, 2o24. The UN experts asserted that Smith’s execution will mark “the [...]

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The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case involving the denial of exercise time to an inmate in solitary confinement. The case centers around Michael Johnson, who was incarcerated at the Pontiac Correctional Center in Illinois. Johnson, who suffers from severe mental health issues, including bipolar depression, severe depression and other diagnosed [...]

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The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed on Thursday to reconsider a decision from August that a provision of the Mississippi Constitution that permanently prevents people convicted of certain felonies from voting is unconstitutional.  The court agreed to rehear the case involving Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution after Secretary of State [...]

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The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that an 1890 state constitutional provision permanently preventing people convicted of certain felonies from voting, Section 241, is unconstitutional. Judge James Dennis writing for the majority, discussed the racial history of the Mississippi Constitution that was ratified in 1890, writing, “From the outset, the object of [...]

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