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Justices square on whether the length of incarceration on death row can be unduly “cruel”

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

Justices Stevens, Thomas, and Breyer squared off Monday on the issue of whether 32 years on death row is unduly  and unconstitutionally cruel in orders respecting the denial of cert in William Lee Thompson v. McNeil. Justice Thomas offers a pithy, superficially appealing argument, that because Thompson “could have accepted,” that is could drop appeals , and avoid the “cruel” nature of his stay on death row there is no constitutional issue present.  Justice Breyer examiness, as he did in Lackey, one of the basic questions of the continued viability of American  exceptionalism in capital punishment jurisprudence, “whether the Constitution permits that execution after a delay of [a large number of years] ?a delay for which the State was in significant part responsible...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on March 09, 2009 (boomark / email).