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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Florida LawJuvenile Law
October 26, 2022By Victoire Jonqua
Ian Manuel lived alone in a room the size of a freight elevator for almost two decades in Florida’s prison system, starting at the age of thirteen.[i] He didn’t have a window in his room to distract himself from the intensity of his confinement.[ii] He wasn’t allowed to talk to other inmates or even to […]
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