Entries tagged with “Neil Gorsuch”

Jun 01, 2026

Supreme Court Roundup: Decisions Allow Jury Discrimination Claim to Proceed and Keep Protections for Intellectually Disabled in Place

In recent weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court issued deci­sions regard­ing two key types of claims that often appear in cap­i­tal cas­es: pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. A bipar­ti­san group of con­ser­v­a­tive and lib­er­al jus­tices car­ried each deci­sion. The Court ruled in favor of Mississippi pris­on­er Terry Pitchford, allow­ing his jury dis­crim­i­na­tion claim to pro­ceed, as well as Florida pris­on­er Gary Whitton, based on a low­er court error in…

Executions

Religion

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Mar 24, 2025

Four Executions in Three Days Spotlight Constitutional Concerns About Death Penalty

In a three-day span from March 18 to March 20, four men were exe­cut­ed in four dif­fer­ent states. Two of the men put to death, in Louisiana and Arizona, were the first exe­cut­ed in their state in years. While the close tim­ing of the exe­cu­tions result­ed from inde­pen­dent state-lev­­el deci­sions and indi­vid­u­al­ized legal devel­op­ments rather than any coor­di­nat­ed nation­al effort, all four exe­cu­tions raised seri­ous con­sti­tu­tion­al con­cerns. ### March 18: Jessie Hoffman (LA) On…

Methods of Execution

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Mar 19, 2025

Louisiana Resumes Executions After 15-Year Hiatus with First Nitrogen Gas Execution

After a series of last-minute legal chal­lenges, cul­mi­nat­ing with a denial of stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, Louisiana exe­cut­ed Jessie Hoffman on March 18, 2025. Mr. Hoffman’s exe­cu­tion marked both the state’s first exe­cu­tion in 15 years and the state’s first exe­cu­tion using nitro­gen gas — only the sec­ond state to use this new method. State offi­cials acknowl­edged that Mr. Hoffman exhib­it­ed​“con­vul­sive activ­i­ty” as he inhaled nitro­gen gas through a mask while…

Research

Apr 24, 2024

Supreme Court Roundup: Justices Hear Oral Arguments on Ineffective Assistance of Counsel, Cruel and Unusual Punishment; Defend Positions on Stays

##### *Justices Debate How Courts Should Assess Aggravating and Mitigating Factors in Capital Cases on Appeal* On April 17, the Supreme Court heard oral argu­ments in *Thornell v. Jones*, a case impli­cat­ing the test for inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel — and the first and only oral argu­ment in a death penal­ty case sched­uled this term. Arizona appealed the Ninth Circuit’s deci­sion vacat­ing the death sen­tence of Danny Lee Jones, which found that Mr. Jones was prej­u­diced by his…

Issues

Jan 22, 2024

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Richard Glossip’s Appeal: High-Profile Innocence Case Where the State Supports Relief

On January 22, the Supreme Court grant­ed cer­tio­rari to Richard Glossip, sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma, whose inno­cence case has received inter­na­tion­al atten­tion. Mr. Glossip’s exe­cu­tion had been sched­uled for May 18, 2023, before the Court issued a stay on May 5 pend­ing the out­come of his peti­tions for cer­tio­rari. Mr. Glossip’s case is unusu­al in that the State of Oklahoma con­ced­ed error and sup­ports his request for a new tri­al. However, Mr. Glossip was forced to…

Research

Federal Death Penalty

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Oct 03, 2023

Analysis Shows Supreme Court’s Changing View of Death Penalty Cases

A recent analy­sis by Bloomberg Law con­clud­ed that death-sen­­tenced pris­on­ers have few­er avenues to relief at the Supreme Court than ever before. Bloomberg iden­ti­fied 270 emer­gency requests to stay exe­cu­tions since 2013 and found that the Court agreed to block an exe­cu­tion just 11 times. Since 2020, when the Court shift­ed to a 6 – 3 con­ser­v­a­tive major­i­ty fol­low­ing the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the appoint­ment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the…