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Dueling Decisions: The Wrongful Death Clock Clangs Twice On The Same Day, Stacey Ann Lannert Apr 2016

Dueling Decisions: The Wrongful Death Clock Clangs Twice On The Same Day, Stacey Ann Lannert

Missouri Law Review

Part II of this Note provides the facts and holding in Boland. Part III presents the legal background of Boland, discusses both the statutory and common law origins of wrongful death causes of action, and explores Missouri’s unique history of wrongful death statutory interpretation. Part IV analyzes the rationale of the Boland court’s return to the strict interpretation standard of days past. Finally, Part V discusses the ramifications of the court's decision and explores why the court should have acknowledged wrongful death claims that ascended from common law.


The Death Penalty On The Streets: What The Eighth Amendment Can Teach About Regulating Police Use Of Force, Jelani Jefferson Exum, D. A. Telman Nov 2015

The Death Penalty On The Streets: What The Eighth Amendment Can Teach About Regulating Police Use Of Force, Jelani Jefferson Exum, D. A. Telman

Missouri Law Review

This Article offers punishment as another lens through which to view police force. The Supreme Court has consistently rejected arguments that the Eighth Amendment is the appropriate vehicle for dealing with excessive police force claims.5 However, reconceptualizing the use of deadly force by police officers as punishment provides a new understanding of the gravity of deadly police force and adds necessary substance to the reasonableness analysis. When police force is likened to punishment, the use of fatal force by police officers can be considered the administration of the death penalty on the streets, absent the procedural protections and focus on …


Omnes Vulnerant, Postuma Necat; All The Hours Wound, The Last One Kills: The Lengthy Stay On Death Row In America, Mary Elizabeth Tongue Jun 2015

Omnes Vulnerant, Postuma Necat; All The Hours Wound, The Last One Kills: The Lengthy Stay On Death Row In America, Mary Elizabeth Tongue

Missouri Law Review

Why inmates spend so long on death row and the accompanying mental ramifications are discussed in Part II. Part III discusses the response of American courts to the lengthy stays of inmates on death row. Next, Part IV discusses the international opinion on America’s lengthy stay on death row, international tribunal holdings on the matter, the philosophical implications of a lengthy stay on death row, and possible solutions. Finally, Part V concludes this Note, finding that abolition of the death penalty is the best solution.


On The Argument That Execution Protocol Reform Is Biomedical Research, Paul J. Litton Jan 2015

On The Argument That Execution Protocol Reform Is Biomedical Research, Paul J. Litton

Faculty Publications

Regardless of whether the Supreme Court rightly upheld Oklahoma’s execution protocol in Glossip, Oklahoma officials had inadequate reason to choose midazolam as the anesthetizing agent in its procedure. Their decision is one example illustrating Seema Shah’s point that death penalty states are engaged in “poorly designed experimentation that is not based on evidence.” Shah argues that “an important factor” causing the high rate of botched executions is that lethal injection reform is a type of human subjects research that is going unregulated. Shah argues that research requirements, such as informed consent and IRB review, are necessary to render the research …


Physician Participation In Executions, The Morality Of Capital Punishment, And The Practical Implications Of Their Relationship, Paul J. Litton Apr 2013

Physician Participation In Executions, The Morality Of Capital Punishment, And The Practical Implications Of Their Relationship, Paul J. Litton

Faculty Publications

Evidence that some executed prisoners suffered excruciating pain has reinvigorated the ethical debate about physician participation in lethal injections. In widely publicized litigation, death row inmates argue that the participation of anesthesiologists in their execution is constitutionally required to minimize the risk of unnecessary suffering. For many years, commentators supported the ethical ban on physician participation reflected in codes of professional medical organizations. However, a recent wave of scholarship concurs with inmate advocates, urging the law to require or at least permit physician participation.


Mental Retardation As A Bar To The Death Penalty: Who Bears The Burden Of Proof, James Gerard Eftink Apr 2010

Mental Retardation As A Bar To The Death Penalty: Who Bears The Burden Of Proof, James Gerard Eftink

Missouri Law Review

In holding that the execution of mentally retarded offenders is cruel and unusual punishment,' the instant court followed the current trend of other states. Even before the Supreme Court of the United States rendered its decision in Atkins, state legislatures around the country, including the Missouri legislature, had enacted laws prohibiting the execution of mentally retarded offenders.' Also, the Supreme Court of Missouri's holding that a defendant bears the burden of proving his mental retardation is consistent with the position taken by the vast majority of states. However, the court rendered its holding in the absence of any legislation placing …


Revelations From The Blackmun Papers On The Development Of Death Penalty Law, Martha Dragich Pearson Nov 2005

Revelations From The Blackmun Papers On The Development Of Death Penalty Law, Martha Dragich Pearson

Missouri Law Review

Justice Blackmun's legacy is strongly linked to two issues - abortion and capital punishment. Blackmun's opinions in these controversial areas account for much of the notion that his ideology changed while on the Court. Participants in this Symposium have reflected on these and other areas where Justice Blackmun left his mark on American law. Professor Deason explores the arbitrability cases and shows that the Court struggled - and Justices changed their minds - even in connection with relatively technical legal issues arising in non-controversial commercial contexts. One reason the Court struggles with some issues is that legal standards are (or …


Revelations From The Blackmun Papers On The Development Of Death Penalty Law , Martha Dragich Oct 2005

Revelations From The Blackmun Papers On The Development Of Death Penalty Law , Martha Dragich

Faculty Publications

Professor Dragich uses the Blackmun papers to augment our understanding of Justice Blackmun's "evolution" on the question of capital punishment. Though the evolution was gradual, she finds that the case of Warren McCleskey seems to have deeply affected Justice Blackmun.


The 'Abuse Excuse' In Capital Sentencing Trials: Is It Relevant To Responsibility, Punishment, Or Neither?, Paul J. Litton Jul 2005

The 'Abuse Excuse' In Capital Sentencing Trials: Is It Relevant To Responsibility, Punishment, Or Neither?, Paul J. Litton

Faculty Publications

The violent criminal who was a victim of severe childhood abuse frequently appears in the responsibility literature because he presents a difficulty for theorists who maintain the compatibility of causal determinism and our practices of holding persons responsible. The challenge is based on the fact that learning about an offender's horrific childhood mitigates the indignation that many persons feel towards him, possibly indicating that they hold him less than fully responsible. Many capital defendants present evidence of suffering childhood abuse, and many jurors find this evidence to count against imposing death. The most obvious explanation for a response like this …


Justice Blackmun, Franz Kafka, And Capital Punishment, Martha Dragich Oct 1998

Justice Blackmun, Franz Kafka, And Capital Punishment, Martha Dragich

Faculty Publications

The Article discusses the problem of judging death penalty cases, comparing Justice Blackmun's death penalty jurisprudence to the struggle of a character in Kafka's story. It focuses on three critical moments in the decisional process--hesitation, decision, and escape--and assesses Justice Blackmun's performance at each step. It concludes that although Justice Blackmun's views remained consistent throughout his judicial career, his death penalty legacy is equivocal, and in some important respects, unsatisfying.


In Defense Of Life: Enforcing The Bill Of Rights On Behalf Of Poor, Minority And Disadvantaged Persons Facing The Death Penalty, Stephen B. Bright Jun 1992

In Defense Of Life: Enforcing The Bill Of Rights On Behalf Of Poor, Minority And Disadvantaged Persons Facing The Death Penalty, Stephen B. Bright

Missouri Law Review

This Article is a lecture from Alder-Rosecan about the court's decision in Furman v. Georgia in which the death penalty as it had existed for 200 years in our country's history was found to be unconstitutionally applied.