Constitutional LawCriminal LawDeath PenaltyFeatured
February 11, 2026By Marcela Rivera
Over twenty years ago, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment forbade states from executing individuals with intellectual disabilities.[i] In Atkins v. Virginia, the Court issued a landmark ruling recognizing that diminished culpability, the absence of meaningful deterrence, and an increased risk of wrongful execution render capital punishment […]
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Constitutional LawDeath PenaltyFeaturedU.S. Constitution
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 […]
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Constitutional LawDeath PenaltyFeaturedFlorida Statutes
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 […]
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Constitutional LawDeath PenaltyFeatured
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 […]
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