Tag: death penalty

In Reed v. Goertz,598 U.S. ____ (2023), the U.S. Supreme Court held that death row inmate Rodney Reed did not wait too long to seek DNA testing of the evidence in his case. According to the Court majority, when a prisoner pursues state post-convicti...

In Madison v Alabama, 586 U. S. ____ (2019), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment may permit executing a prisoner even if he cannot remember committing his crime. However, it may prohibit executing a prisoner even though he suffers ...

In Moore v Texas, 581 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the standard used by the State of Texas to determine whether a mentally disabled defendant can be subjected to the death penalty violated the Constitution. By a vote of 5-3, th...

The U.S. Supreme Court will return from its summer recess at the end of the month. The justices have already agreed to consider a number of significant criminal law cases over 2016-2017 Term. This post offers a brief preview.   Bravo-Fer...

The U.S. Supreme Court returns from recess on February 22, 2016 without Justice Antonin Scalia. Below is a brief summary of the Supreme Court’s Case Docket that the Eight justices will consider this month.   Kingdomware Technologies, In...

In Kansas v. Carr, 577 U. S. ____ (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of jury instructions used in two Kansas capital murder cases. The justices ruled that the Eighth Amendment does not mandate that courts instruct ...

On January 12, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida’s capital-sentencing scheme in Hurst v. Florida, 577 U. S. (2016). By a vote of 8-1, the justices held that allowing the trial judge to have the final say on a death sentence violated ...

U.S. Supreme Court Review for October, 2015: The justices of the Court have been busy since returning to the bench. The Supreme Court Review covers oral arguments in ten cases and added a number of important new cases to the docket. On Oc...

The Supreme Court’s new term begins on October 5, 2015. One of the first cases the justices will consider is Hurst v. Florida. The case raises several questions about the constitutionality of Florida’s capital punishment scheme, particularly the...

On June 29, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, by a vote of 5-4, that Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The case, Glossip v. Gross, was one of the most signi...