St. Thomas Law Review – Death Penalty

Constitutional Law Death Penalty Featured U.S. Constitution

New Executions Methods: How Alabama’s Use of Nitrogen Gas for Executions Calls for a Reassessment of What Exactly is Cruel and Unusual Punishment

March 25, 2024By Rocio Iglesias Gonzalez

The Eighth Amendment states, “[e]xcessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”[i] For many years, advocates against the death penalty have asserted that capital punishment violates the Eighth Amendment.[ii] To advance their argument, advocates argue that the methods used to carry out the executions are cruel […]

Constitutional Law Death Penalty Featured Florida Statutes

Will Florida’s Death Penalty for Convicted Child Rapists Reverse Supreme Court Precedent?

March 15, 2024By Kaisha Ahye

Current Precedent On August 25, 2003, Patrick Kennedy was found guilty of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter and was sentenced to death by a jury of his peers in a Louisiana court.[i] Kennedy appealed. He argued that under the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment because […]

Constitutional Law Death Penalty Featured

Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Where Do We Draw the Line?

February 28, 2024By Alyssa Fleischer

“The world is watching.”[i] So wrote Justice Sotomayor in her dissent written and released a mere two days before the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith by nitrogen hypoxia protocol—a drug that the United States Supreme Court has conceded has never been successful. On June 24, 2024, the United States Supreme Court decided not […]

Constitutional Law Death Penalty Featured Florida Law

Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Why Florida’s Proposal to Amend its Death Penalty Requirements Warrant a Renewed Discussion about its Mental Health System

April 7, 2023By Mark Salnick

In the United States, 27 states recognize the death penalty as a potential punishment for those convicted of a capital crime. Of those 27 states, Florida has recently been at the forefront of amending the requirements to sentence a defendant to death. Florida’s proposal to implement a supermajority standard for issuing a death sentence should […]

Load Older Posts