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Full-Text Articles in Law
Doctors, Discipline, And The Death Penalty: Professional Implications Of Safe Harbor Statutes, Nadia N. Sawicki
Doctors, Discipline, And The Death Penalty: Professional Implications Of Safe Harbor Statutes, Nadia N. Sawicki
All Faculty Scholarship
State capital punishment statutes generally contemplate the involvement of medical providers, and courts have acknowledged that the qualifications of lethal injection personnel have a constitutionally relevant dimension. However, the American Medical Association has consistently voiced its opposition to any medical involvement in executions. In recent years, some states have responded to this conflict by adopting statutory mechanisms to encourage medical participation in lethal injections. Foremost among these are safe harbor policies, which prohibit state medical boards from taking disciplinary action against licensed medical personnel who participate in executions. This Article posits that safe harbor policies, as limitations on medical board …
Foreword: The Perpetual Controversy, Christopher M. Johnson
Foreword: The Perpetual Controversy, Christopher M. Johnson
The University of New Hampshire Law Review
[Excerpt] “Two qualities of American capital punishment perhaps explain its ability to command the attention of the Court, year by year, decade after decade. First, an exceptionally talented and dedicated specialist capital defense bar continually mounts new challenges to the institution of the death penalty. This year, for example, we await a decision from the Supreme Court on the claim that the lethal injection method of execution violates the cruel and unusual punishments clause of the Constitution. Never before has the Supreme Court confronted this claim; indeed, not for more than a hundred years has the Supreme Court addressed a …
The Abolitionist's Dilemma: Establishing The Standards Of Decency For The Evolving Standards Of Decency, Dwight Aarons
The Abolitionist's Dilemma: Establishing The Standards Of Decency For The Evolving Standards Of Decency, Dwight Aarons
College of Law Faculty Scholarship
The evolving standard of decency test is at the heart of the constitutional regulation of the death penalty. From 1976 through 1989 the U.S. Supreme Court generally relied on six-factors to define the substantive limits of death eligibility. But in Atkins v. Virginia (2002) and Roper v. Simmons (2005) the Court seemed to change course. The precedential value of Atkins and Roper will depend on the Roberts Court's adherence to precedent. Nonetheless, the Court has some work to do to ensure that the evolving standard of decency test has meaningful content and enduring use.Baze v. Rees, the pending challenge to …
Abolition In The U.S.A. By 2050: On Political Capital And Ordinary Acts Of Resistance, Bernard E. Harcourt
Abolition In The U.S.A. By 2050: On Political Capital And Ordinary Acts Of Resistance, Bernard E. Harcourt
Faculty Scholarship
The United States, like the larger international community, likely will tend toward greater abolition of the death penalty during the first half of the twenty-first century. A handful of individual states – states that have historically carried out few or no executions – probably will abolish capital punishment over the next twenty years, which will create political momentum and ultimately a federal constitutional ban on capital punishment in the United States. It is entirely reasonable to expect that, by the mid-twenty-first century, capital punishment will have the same status internationally as torture: an outlier practice, prohibited by international agreements and …