Supreme Court hears oral argument in death penalty, railroad tax cases
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in two cases: the first concerning alternative methods of capital punishment for an inmate suffering from a rare illness, and the second concerning employment taxes under the Railroad Retirement Tax Act (RRTA). The first, Bucklew v. Precythe, asks the court to consider whether a Missouri death row [...]
Federal judge rules Missouri violated rights of juvenile offenders
A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Missouri ruled Friday that recent parole hearings violated the constitutional rights of inmates who are serving life without parole for juvenile offenses (JLWOP). The plaintiffs in this case are all people in Missouri prisons for homicide offenses committed when they were less than 18 [...]
Sotomayor expresses concern over solitary confinement as Supreme Court declines to hear case
US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor voiced alarm Tuesday over the current use of solitary confinement as the court declined to hear a case challenging the practice. Although she agreed with the decision to not hear this case, the justice expressed her overall concerns about the extreme mental anguish caused by solitary confinement and the [...]
Blackwater security guard murder retrial ends with hung jury
A jury failed to reach a verdict Wednesday in the retrial of former Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten, ending weeks of deliberation in a mistrial. “We have reexamined our views and continued our discussions about the evidence and determined that individually we cannot ‘surrender honest conviction as to the weight or effect of evidence solely [...]
Federal appeals court rules homeless people cannot be cited if no indoor sleeping options exist
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that a homeless person cannot be cited for violating city ordinances against camping or disorderly conduct for sleeping in outdoor public spaces if they do not have access to city shelters. The case was brought by six homeless and formerly homeless individuals in the [...]
Attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center and New York City-based firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday arguing that Mississippi's disenfranchisement laws for people convicted of particular felonies, and...
ACLU of Nebraska challenges state's lethal injection protocol in lawsuit
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska filed a lawsuit on Monday on behalf of state Senator Ernie Chambers and social justice advocate Reverend Stephen Griffith challenging the state's lethal injection procedures. The civil...
Supreme Court stays Missouri execution over dissent of four justices
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday granted a stay to Russell Bucklew who was scheduled to be executed that evening. The brief order stayed the execution pending a writ of certiorari to the court because of...
The US Supreme Court granted certiorari in three cases for its next term on Monday. New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira challenges the applicability of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and presents...
Federal appeals court rules Louisiana death row inmates not entitled to air conditioning
The US Court Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a lower court's ruling that temperatures in Louisiana's death-row prison cells be kept below 88 degrees Fahrenheit. In an opinion by the Chief Judge, the court explained...
