Graham v. Florida (08-7412); Sullivan v. Florida (08-7621)

Oral argument: November 9, 2009

Appealed from: Florida First District Court of Appeal (Graham v. Florida, Apr. 10, 2008; Sullivan v. Florida, June 17, 2008)

EIGHTH AMENDMENT, CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT, JUVENILE

Terrance Jamal Graham (“Graham”) committed an armed burglary when he was sixteen years old. Joe Harris Sullivan committed sexual battery when he was thirteen years old. Both men are currently serving life sentences in the State of Florida (“Florida”) with no possibility of parole. Graham and Sullivan each argue that sentencing a juvenile to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments. Florida counters that such sentences are not constitutionally barred and reflect a state’s considered legislative response to the growing problem of juvenile crime. In this case, the U.S. Supreme Court will determine whether juveniles may be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for committing non-homicide offenses.

The Torture Archive

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/torture_archive/index.htm

83,000 digitized pages of items related to torture might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but this invaluable resource created by The National Security Archive at The George Washington University is a real gem and an important research tool. Released in August 2009, The Torture Archive contains primary source documents related to the “detention and interrogation of individuals by the United States, in connection with the conduct of hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The project started in 2006 with support from the Open Society Institute, and this archive brings together many documents which are currently available in different places on the Internet. On the site, visitors can view an interactive timeline of related events and search the entire database of documents by title, date, organization, or keywords. Additionally, some parties will want to watch the documentary film “Torturing Democracy“, which is available here as well.

***
Hat Tip to the Internet Scout Report. To subscribe to the Scout Report in text or HTML format, go to:
http://scout.wisc.edu/About/subscribe.php

Federal Judge Orders the Release of Uighurs Held in Guantanamo Bay

IN RE: GUANTANAMO BAY DETAINEE LITIGATION

Via FINDLAW:
(U.S. Dist. Ct., Dist. of Columbia, Oct. 7, 2008) – A proposed order for the release of 17 Chinese Muslims (Uighurs) captured in Afghanistan and held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since 2006. The government had argued that the judge did not have the power to order a transfer of detainees from Gitmo to the United States, despite the fact that the men’s “enemy combatant” designation had been removed.

US Supreme Court Upholds 3-Drug Lethal Injection Protocol

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, SENTENCING

Baze v. Rees, No. 07–5439
Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol used as its method of execution does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments. (Five concurring opinions and dissent)

DOJ Memo: Terror Suspects Lack 5th, 8th Amendment Protections

JUSTICE DEP’T LEGAL MEMO TO DEFENSE DEP’T GENERAL COUNSEL ON MILITARY INTERROGATION TACTICS(U.S. Dept. of Justice, Wash., D.C.) -(Warning Large Document-5+megs)In a newly released March 13, 2003 memo, John C. Yoo, former Deputy Counsel in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, explained that the DOJ believed the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth and Eighth Amendments “do not extend to alien enemy combatants held abroad,” so that federal crimes of assault, maiming, and interstate stalking would not apply to military interrogators. 

JURIST: US Supreme Court stays execution of Alabama death row inmate

 Mike Rosen-Molina at 6:17 PM ET

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Thursday stayed the execution[order, PDF] of Alabama death row inmate James Harvey Callahan “pending the timely filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari.” Callahan had been scheduled to be executed at 6 PM CST on Thursday. The stay will terminate automatically if Callahan’s petition for certiorari is denied. A district judge blocked Callahan’s execution [opinion, PDF] in December, pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Baze v. Rees [JURIST report], but the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit lifted the stay [opinion, PDF] earlier this week after finding that Callahan had filed his constitutional challenge to Alabama’s execution procedures after the statue of limitations had expired. AP has more. SCOTUSblog has additional coverage.Callahan would have been the first prisoner to be executed since September 2007, when the Supreme Court granted certiorari to hear Baze v. Rees. In that case, the Court is considering whether the three-drug lethal injection cocktail [DPIC backgrounder] now used in over 30 states violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Since the US Supreme Court accepted theBaze case in September, courts have stayed executions in several states, including Texas, Arizona,Nevada, Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida [JURIST reports].

JURIST – Paper Chase: Supreme Court blocks Mississippi lethal injection execution

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Supreme Court blocks Mississippi lethal injection execution Mike Rosen-Molina at 7:26 PM ET

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] granted a stay of execution [order, PDF] to a convicted murderer on Mississippi’s death row Tuesday, pending the Court’s decision on whether to grant certiorari in the case. Earl Wesley Berry was scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday night; his was the third stay granted by the justices since they agreed last month in Baze v. Rees (07-5439) [docket; cert. petition] to hear a challenge to the use of lethal injections [JURIST news archive] as a form of “cruel and unusual punishment.” Experts say that the stay may amount to a de facto nationwide moratorium on the death penalty.

ABC News has more.

AP has additional coverage.

JURIST – Paper Chase: ABA urges nationwide death penalty moratorium

Via JURIST:

JURIST – Paper Chase: ABA urges nationwide death penalty moratorium

Monday, October 29, 2007

ABA urges nationwide death penalty moratorium Jaime Jansen at 6:59 AM ET

[JURIST] The American Bar Association (ABA) [official website] said Monday that there are serious flaws in the fairness and accuracy of several state death penalty systems [project website], and called for a nationwide moratorium on executions [JURIST report]. The ABA task force studied eight sample states – Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee [JURIST reports] – and found poor collection and preservation of DNA evidence, misidentification by eyewitnesses, false confessions and racial disparities.

The ABA study did not examine lethal injections [JURIST news archive], a form of execution that has come under fire nationwide recently. Several states have placed a moratorium on lethal injections pending US Supreme Court review in Baze v. Rees (07-5439) [docket; cert. petition]. In that case, the Court will consider whether the controversial three-drug mixture [DPIC backgrounder] of an anesthetic, a muscle paralyzer and a substance to stop the heart constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Several constitutional challenges to the procedure have arisen across the country, arguing that the first drug fails to make the inmate fully unconscious, thereby making the inmate suffer excruciating pain when the heart-stopping drug is injected.

AP has more.

North Carolina medical board can’t discipline execution doctors: judge

 Mike Rosen-Molina at 5:37 PM ET

[JURIST] The North Carolina Medical Board [official website] does not have the authority to discipline doctors that participate in state death penalty [JURIST news archive] procedures, a state judge ruled [PDF text] Friday. Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens held that state requirements that a physician be in attendance during the lethal injection execution of condemned inmates trump a medical board policy [policy statement] that forbids doctors from participating in executions. Under North Carolina law, a doctor must monitor the condemned prisoner’s vital signs and stop the execution if he seems to be suffering. State medical board rules allow doctors to be present, but prohibit any direct involvement in the actual execution. The North Carolina State Department of Corrections [official website] in March filed [JURIST report] a lawsuit against the medical board, alleging that the board’s policy prevents it from carrying out the death penalty [JURIST news archive]. In January, Stephens blocked two executions [JURIST report] when doctors refused to participate after the policy shift. The News & Observer has more.

 

Related Death Penalty News from Jurist 

Federal judge rules Tennessee lethal injection procedure ‘cruel and inhumane’

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Mike Rosen-Molina at 6:49 PM ET

[Via JURIST] A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Tennessee’s execution procedures constitute “cruel and unusual” punishment, derailing plans to execute a death row inmate next week. US District Judge Aleta Trauger [official profile] held that revised death penalty protocols [PDF text; JURIST report], devised by the Tennessee Department of Corrections in April at the request of Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen [official website], do not ensure that prisoners’ are properly anesthetized before they receive a lethal injection and thus violate their constitutional Eighth Amendment rights. The Tennessee Attorney General’s office has not yet decided whether or not it will appeal the decision. AP has more.Bredesen ordered a moratorium on executions [executive order, PDF; JURIST report] in February and directed the Tennessee Department of Corrections to conduct a “comprehensive review of the manner in which death sentences are administered… and provide [the governor] new protocols and related written procedures in administering death sentences in Tennessee.” Bredesen accepted the new protocols and the state conducted its first execution [JURIST report] under the new rules in May. The new protocol includes more detailed guidelines for administering lethal injections but still includes a controversial three-drug “cocktail” which some say may be ineffective in preventing inmates from suffering a painful death [JURIST report]. Tennessee executed [JURIST report] a condemned man by electric chair last week, the first execution by electrocution in the state since 1960.