Iowa top court rules juveniles cannot be given life without parole
The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday ruled that juvenile convicted of first-degree murder may not be sentenced to life without parole. The court reasoned that sentencing a juvenile to life without parole was cruel and...
Kansas top court rules sex offenders' lifetime registration not 'cruel and unusual punishment'
A divided Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that a lifetime registration as a sex offender does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The court heard the case of Henry Petersen-Beard who was convicted as a 19-year-old of raping...
Ohio top court allows execution of death row inmate following botched attempt
The Supreme Court of Ohio on Wednesday ruled that the state can execute a man whose execution was halted in 2009 after a failed attempt to administer lethal injection drugs. Romell Broom was to be...
JURIST Guest Columnist Daniel J. Wright of The Law Office of Daniel Wright discusses the need to revisit life without parole sentencing in the US justice system..."No one truly knows a nation," Nelson Mandela wrote, "until one has been inside...
On the Road to Abolition: Capital Punishment and Its Uncertain Future in the United States
JURIST Guest Columnist Meghan J. Ryan of Dedman School of Law, Associate Professor of Law, discusses the evolution and future of the death penalty...Capital punishment in this country has a long and storied history. In the early years, the colonies...
Federal appeals court rejects Georgia death row inmate's challenge
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday rejected a Georgia death row inmate's legal challenge. The federal appeals court rejected inmate Brandon Astor Jones' challenge to Georgia law that shields the identity...
More than a dozen death row inmates in Zimbabwe on Sunday submitted a plea to the nation's constitutional court through a local NGO, arguing that their death sentences are unconstitutional. The inmates have spent between four and 20 years...
Federal appeals court rejects California death penalty challenge
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday reversed a lower court decision that had held that California's death penalty system was unconstitutional . The appeals court held that the excessive...
Innocence, Experimentation and Executions in Oklahoma and Beyond
JURIST Guest Columnist Meghan J. Ryan of Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law discusses the controversy surrounding Richard Eugene Glossip's Oklahoma death penalty sentence... The recent activity surrounding the scheduled execution of Oklahoma's Richard Eugene Glossip has once again...
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Utah on Friday denied an appeal by 74-year-old death row inmate Ron Lafferty to place a hold on his federal case to challenge his execution by...
