In the past decade, there have been a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions interpreting the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment,” as it applies to juvenile defendants.

Tagged with: Anthony Cotton Eighth Amendment Kuchler & Cotton Miller v. Alabama On the Defensive stabbing

Defendants who offer a diminished capacity defense cannot seek to exclude rebuttal evidence from court-ordered mental evaluations on Fifth Amendment grounds, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Kansas v. Cheever.

Tagged with: ACLU Eighth Amendment Fifth Amendment Sonia Sotomayor U.S. Supreme Court

A 2010 law designed to eliminate harsher sentences for black offenders convicted of crack cocaine crimes should not apply retroactively, a federal appeals court ruled in a deeply divided decision that several dissenting judges wrote amounts to furthering racial discrimination.

Tagged with: Crack cocaine Eighth Amendment Fair Sentencing Act racial discrimination

Law enforcement officers for years have taken advantage of overly broad civil forfeiture laws.

Tagged with: Anthony Cotton Court of Appeals Eighth Amendment forfeiture Kuchler & Cotton Law Offices On the Defensive

The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment does not preclude a mandatory life sentence for dealers who possess a smaller quantity of crack cocaine than the quantity of powder cocaine necessary to trigger a similar sentence, the 7th Circuit has ruled.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Crack cocaine drugs Eighth Amendment U.S. Court of Appeals U.S. Supreme Court

11-3418 Miller v. Harbaugh

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Digests Civil Digest Civil Rights Digest Eighth Amendment Qualified immunity

12-1806 Wheeler v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Digest Civil Digest Civil Rights Digest deliberate indifference Eighth Amendment

In two widely anticipated rulings, the Supreme Court ruled the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment bars juvenile homicide offenders from being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Tagged with: Eighth Amendment Immigration life in prison RESPA Supreme Court

A year after holding that sentencing a juvenile to life without parole in non-murder cases violates the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether imposing such a sentence on a juvenile for capital murder is unconstitutional.

Tagged with: Eighth Amendment Miller v. Alabama Supreme Court

At oral arguments on Tuesday, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed skeptical of a federal prisoner’s claim that he should be allowed to bring a Bivens action against private contractors who run the prison where he was housed.

Tagged with: Eighth Amendment Elena Kagan Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer Supreme Court tort

09-3280 Arnett v. Webster

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Digest Civil Digest Civil Rights Civil Rights Digest Eighth Amendment