Law Commons^™

Ford V. Wainwright, Statutory Changes And A New Test For Sanity: You Can't Execute Me, I'M Crazy, Steven J. Huff

Cleveland State Law Review

In Ford v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court addressed the issue of whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of an insane inmate. In answering this query, the Court created a constitutional right not to be executed while incompetent. However, the Ford decision is not only important for its creation of a "new" constitutional right, it also has the potential of nullifying several state statutes in regards to the due process requirements of hearings addressing the issue of insanity at the time of execution. The Ford decision also requires that a new test of sanity be created the test of whether …