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Human Rights Law

Selected Works

Cruel and unusual punishment

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Incapacitation Through Maiming: Chemical Castration, The Eighth Amendment, And The Denial Of Human Dignity, John F. Stinneford Dec 2014

Incapacitation Through Maiming: Chemical Castration, The Eighth Amendment, And The Denial Of Human Dignity, John F. Stinneford

John F. Stinneford

This year marks the tenth anniversary of California's enactment of the nation's first chemical castration law. This law requires certain sex offenders to receive, as part of their punishment, long-term pharmacological treatment involving massive doses of a synthetic female hormone called medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA). MPA treatment is described as chemical castration because it mimics the effect of surgical castration by eliminating almost all testosterone from the offender's system. The intended effect of MPA treatment is to alter brain and body function by reducing the brain's exposure to testosterone, thus depriving offenders of most (or all) capacity to experience sexual desire …


Lessons From Hurricane Katrina: Prison Emergency Preparedness As A Constitutional Imperative, Ira P. Robbins Oct 2010

Lessons From Hurricane Katrina: Prison Emergency Preparedness As A Constitutional Imperative, Ira P. Robbins

Ira P. Robbins

Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters ever to strike the United States, in terms of casualties, suffering, and financial cost. Often overlooked among Katrina's victims are the 8,000 inmates who were incarcerated at Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) when Katrina struck. Despite a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, these men and women, some of whom had been held on charges as insignificant as public intoxication, remained in the jail as the hurricane hit, and endured days of rising, toxic waters, a lack of food and drinking water, and a complete breakdown of order within OPP. When the inmates …


The Supreme Court Of The United States Has Been Called Upon To Determine The Legality Of The Juvenile Death Penalty In Michael Domingues V. State Of Nevada, Connie De La Vega, Jennifer Fiore Dec 1998

The Supreme Court Of The United States Has Been Called Upon To Determine The Legality Of The Juvenile Death Penalty In Michael Domingues V. State Of Nevada, Connie De La Vega, Jennifer Fiore

Connie de la Vega

This article summarizes the arguments made against the juvenile death penalty in a U.S. Supreme Court amici curiae brief in Domingues v. State, 961 P.2d 1279 (Nev. 1998), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 963 (1999), and rebuts some of the State's propositions made in its response. It argues that United States' obligation to faithfully comply with its treaty obligations (particularly under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), as well as the customary international law and jus cogens norm do not permit the execution of juveniles for crimes committed while below the age of eighteen.