Search Results for: cruel AND unusual punishment

The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from the state of Alabama regarding a death row inmate’s request for an alternative execution method. With the court’s decision, a lower court ruling in favor of the death row inmate stands and the alternative method, as opposed to lethal injection, should be allowed. [...]

A new report released by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) has dubbed 2022 the “Year of the Botched Execution,” shedding light on critical issues that mire the capital punishment process in the US — including racial discrimination and problems with prosecutorial accountability. The report highlights that botched executions and protocol errors have led to [...]

The US Supreme Court Monday declined to hear a case that asks if extended solitary confinement is a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the country’s constitution. In Hope v. Harris, the petition for the plaintiff described the solitary confinement of Dennis Wayne Hope since 1994 following an escape attempt from prison. For almost 30 years, [...]

The US Supreme Court Tuesday declined to block the execution of an inmate in Florida. With no listed dissents, the court denied Louis Gaskin’s petition for a grant to stay his upcoming execution. Louis Gaskin, who is set to be executed Wednesday, was convicted of two counts of first degree murder in 1990. Florida prosecutors [...]

The US Supreme Court Monday declined to hear David Brown v. Louisiana, a case which concerns evidence rules in criminal trials. The man who petitioned the court to hear the case remains on death row, where he has been since his 2011 criminal conviction. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Sonia [...]

The US Supreme Court Wednesday ruled to allow the execution of convicted Florida murderer Donald Dillbeck after he filed last-minute request for a stay. The court denied the appeal just one day before Dillbeck’s execution in a brief decision without any recorded dissents. The Florida State Prison executed Dillbeck Thursday. In his appeal, Dillbeck argued [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada Friday published two opinions which respectively struck down the mandatory minimum sentence for discharging a firearm into a house and upheld the two mandatory minimums for armed robbery with a firearm. The court handed down both decisions simultaneously. In R v. Hills the court considered whether the four-year mandatory minimum [...]

South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Jocelyn Newman ruled Tuesday that the state’s planned use of a firing squad and an electric chair for executions was unconstitutional. This ruling grants relief to four death row inmates. Freddie Eugene Owens, Brad Keith Sigmon, Gary Dubose Terry, and Richard Bernard Moore were all convicted of committing at least [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Tuesday held that Arkansas’ three-drug execution protocol does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The case, Stacey Johnson v. Asa Hutchinson, was initially brought by death-row prisoners seeking to avoid the execution protocol in Arkansas. Though Arkansas’ supply of the three [...]

The South Carolina Supreme Court Wednesday blocked the state from committing its first firing squad execution. Through the temporary stay, the planned execution of Richard Bernard Moore scheduled for April 29 has been put on hold. Moore was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1999 murder of a convenience store clerk, James Mahoney. The [...]