Law Commons^™

Cruel Techniques, Unusual Secrets, William W. Berry, Meghan J. Ryan

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In the recent case of Glossip v. Gross, the Supreme Court denied a death row petitioner’s challenge to Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol. An important part of Justice Alito’s majority opinion highlighted the existence of a relationship between the constitutionality of a punishment and the requirement of a constitutional technique available to administer the punishment.

Far from foreclosing future challenges, this principle ironically highlights the failure of the Court to describe the relationship under the Eighth Amendment between three distinct categories of punishment: (1) the type of punishment imposed by the court — i.e., death penalty, life without parole, life with …

Brief For Professors At Unm School Of Law As Amicus Curiae, Fry V. Lopez, George Bach

Faculty Scholarship

Argument:

This Court should reject the application of the death sentence to Robert Fry and Tim Allen for statutory and constitutional reasons. First, H.B. 285, 49th Leg., 1st Sess. (N.M. 2009) repealed the statutory authority governing execution of the death sentence. Without statutory authority, the Corrections Department cannot act. In addition, in light of the repeal of the death sentence in New Mexico, the application of the death sentence to Mr. Fry and Mr. Allen would violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the New Mexico Constitution. An alternative basis for precluding the use …

A Modest Proposal: The Aged Of Death Row Should Be Deemed Too Old To Execute, Elizabeth Rapaport

Faculty Scholarship

My exploration of the case for an Eighth Amendment bar against executing the long-serving elderly will begin with a review of the representation of the elderly on Americas death rows and a survey of the very limited avenues of relief currently available to them on the basis of age. I will then discuss the attribution problem by asking at whose door should 'fault' for long delays between condemnation and consummation of a capital sentence be laid--the prisoner, the state, or the working through of due process? For many jurists, attribution of fault is critical to resolving the question of whether …

The Georgia Immigration Pardons: A Case Study In Mass Clemency, Elizabeth Rapaport

Faculty Scholarship

The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) enlarged the class of aliens subject to mandatory deportation as "aggravated felons" under the Immigration and Nationality Act. There is only one way of avoiding deportation where a non-citizen has at any time in the past been convicted of an offense triggering removal, and that is to obtain a pardon. Over the 15-month period ending in June of 2001, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole granted 138 pardons to permanent resident aliens who had suddenly found themselves subject to deportation under IIRAIRA. Recipients of these pardons included people who …