In a 6-3 decision, the court’s majority declined to take an appeal from an Illinois prisoner held in solitary confinement for more than three years with no opportunity for exercise
South Carolina's highest court apparently is not ready to allow the state to restart executions after more than 12 years until they hear more arguments about newly obtained lethal injection drugs as well as a recently added firing squad and the old electric chair. The state Supreme Court set a Feb. 6 date for a hearing over a lawsuit by four death row inmates out of appeals who initially argued dying by electrocution or bullets to the heart is cruel and unusual punishment.
A US District Court has blocked the execution of a schizophrenic man who had been sentenced to die in Texas for a double murder."The court finds that Scott Panetti is not competent to be executed under the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment set forth by the Eighth Amendment."
A federal appeals court on Thursday agreed to reconsider a ruling by three of its judges that struck down part of Mississippi's state constitution that strips the right to vote from thousands of convicts after they complete their sentences. The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hold a so-called en banc rehearing of the case before all 16 of its active judges automatically voids, for now, last month's 2-1 panel ruling finding the provision was a "cruel and unusual punishment" that disproportionately affected Black people. "We look forward to re-briefing the issues and arguing before the full Fifth Circuit in January," Jonathan Youngwood, a lawyer for plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit said in an email.
San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan has joined efforts to get the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a federal court case out of Oregon that could reshape rules surrounding how cities can address homeless encampments.