cruel-and-unusual
32 cases — ← All topics
| Case | Title | Lower Court | Docketed | Status | Flags | Tags | Question Presented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25A563 | Rodney Vance Frith v. Kyle Smith | Fourth Circuit | 2025-11-14 | Application | cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment medical-indifference prisoner-rights section-1983 serious-medical-needs | Whether a prison's alleged deliberate indifference to a prisoner's serious medical needs constitutes a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition… | |
| 25A457 | Anthony Boyd v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2025-10-21 | Denied | asphyxiation cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment execution-method nitrogen-hypoxia preliminary-injunction | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits execution by nitrogen hypoxia that causes prolonged conscious suffering and asphyxiation when a less painful al… | |
| 25A185 | Kayle B. Bates v. Florida, et al. | Florida | 2025-08-14 | Denied | capital-punishment constitutional-protection cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment irreparable-harm | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate when the state supreme court has denied constitutional protections that saf… | |
| 24A1175 | Kevin Salvador Golphin v. North Carolina | North Carolina | 2025-06-02 | Presumed Complete | cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment juvenile-offender life-without-parole miller-v-alabama rehabilitation | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits sentencing a juvenile offender to life without parole based solely on the nature of the crime without meaningfu… | |
| 24A698 | Randy W. Duck v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction | Eighth Circuit | 2025-01-15 | Presumed Complete | constitutional-challenge cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment method-of-execution prisoner-rights | Whether a state corrections director's denial of a prisoner's request for a specific method of execution violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition o… | |
| 24A688 | Thomas Creech v. Idaho | Idaho | 2025-01-14 | Presumed Complete | botched-execution cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-attempt resweber-precedent | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits a second execution attempt after a botched first attempt that poses a substantial risk of serious harm or cruel… | |
| 24A354 | Jessie J. Barnes v. Donald Uhler, Superintendent, Upstate Correctional Facility, et al. | Second Circuit | 2024-10-15 | Presumed Complete | conditions-of-confinement cruel-and-unusual deliberate-indifference eighth-amendment medical-care prisoner-rights | Whether a prison's conditions of confinement and alleged deliberate indifference to a prisoner's medical needs constitute a violation of the Eighth Am… | |
| 24A295 | Larry D. Sapp v. Kimberly Foxx, Individually and in Her Official Capacity as State's Attorney of Cook County, Illinois | Seventh Circuit | 2024-09-25 | Presumed Complete | civil-punishment cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment mendoza-martinez public-office time-limits | Whether civil punishment statutes that permanently restrict an individual's right to hold public office without time limits violate the Eighth Amendme… | |
| 24A140 | Christopher Harry West v. Mark Emig, et al. | Third Circuit | 2024-08-07 | Presumed Complete | cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment mattress-removal mental-health prisoner-rights qualified-immunity | Whether the Eighth Amendment permits the removal of a prisoner's mattress as a mental health intervention without violating constitutional protections… | |
| 24A15 | Bobby Tatum v. Correctional Officer Hunter, et al. | Seventh Circuit | 2024-07-09 | Presumed Complete | constitutional-protection cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment injunctive-relief prisoner-rights sexual-assault | Whether the district court's failure to issue an injunction protecting a prisoner from alleged sexual assault violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibit… | |
| 23A1065 | Jamie Mills v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2024-05-29 | Denied | constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-gurney prolonged-restraint | Whether prolonged restraint on an execution gurney without access to counsel constitutes a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel an… | |
| 23A850 | Benjamin F. Whiteman v. Kathy Jennings, Attorney General of Delaware, et al. | Third Circuit | 2024-03-20 | Presumed Complete | constitutional-challenge cruel-and-unusual due-process habitual-offender mandatory-minimum sentencing-statute | Whether a state sentencing statute that mandates consecutive sentences for habitual offenders without judicial discretion violates due process and con… | |
| 23A761 | Thomas Eugene Creech v. Idaho | Idaho | 2024-02-21 | Denied | constitutional-proportionality cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution mental-illness | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of an individual with a demonstrated history of severe mental illness under the Eighth Amendment'… | |
| 23A688 | Kenneth Eugene Smith v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2024-01-25 | Denied | cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment equal-protection execution-method fourteenth-amendment nitrogen-hypoxia | Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit a state from executing an inmate using an untested nitrogen hypoxia method that poses a substant… | |
| 23A664 | Kenneth Eugene Smith v. Alabama | Alabama | 2024-01-19 | Denied | cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-attempt iv-access lethal-injection | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits a state from executing a condemned prisoner after multiple failed execution attempts involving repeated difficu… | |
| 23A599 | William Phillip Neidinger v. United States | Ninth Circuit | 2024-01-02 | Presumed Complete | cruel-and-unusual due-process eighth-amendment federal-sentencing identity-preservation judicial-discretion | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits imposing a federal prison sentence that effectively destroys a defendant's identity and constitutes cruel and u… | |
| 23A444 | David Santiago Renteria v. Texas | Texas | 2023-11-16 | Denied | cruel-and-unusual degraded-drugs due-process eighth-amendment execution-protocol lethal-injection | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the use of degraded, unstable lethal injection drugs that pose a substantial risk of causing severe pain during… | |
| 23-5442 | Wayne Jerome Johnson v. California | California | 2023-08-25 | Denied | Response WaivedRelisted (3)IFP | constitutional-vagueness criminal-sentencing cruel-and-unusual double-jeopardy due-process felony-misdemeanor penal-code-interpretation three-strikes three-strikes-law vagueness | Whether it is unconstitutional to impose two separate strikes on Petitioner for the same act under two separate statutes |
| 21-1363 | Brandon Scott Lavergne v. Darrell Vannoy, Warden | Fifth Circuit | 2022-04-19 | Denied | Response Waived | 8th-amendment cruel-and-unusual cruel-and-unusual-punishment habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel life-without-parole plea-agreement rule-60b-petition solitary-confinement | Is a criminal sentence of life without parole in solitary confinement a cruel and unusual sentence? |
| 19-7594 | Felix Lopez-Cabrera v. United States | Second Circuit | 2020-02-07 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | 8th-amendment age-of-culpability age-of-majority criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment juvenile-sentencing life-sentence life-sentences national-consensus neuroscience | Whether Supreme Court jurisprudence finding mandatory life sentences for juveniles cruel and unusual under the Eight Amendment, and non-mandatory life… |
| 18A1264 | City of Boise v. Robert Martin, et al. | Ninth Circuit | 2019-06-04 | Presumed Complete | criminal-punishment cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment homelessness public-spaces shelter-availability | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits a city from enforcing public camping and sleeping ordinances against homeless individuals when the number of ho… | |
| 18A1238 | Christopher Lee Price v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2019-05-29 | Presumed Complete | cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment execution-protocol lethal-injection midazolam pain-and-suffering | Whether Alabama's lethal injection protocol using midazolam violates the Eighth Amendment by posing a substantial risk of causing severe and excruciat… | |
| 18-9031 | In Re Michael Brandon Samra | 2019-04-30 | Denied | IFP | brain-development capital-sentencing cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment evolving-standards habeas-corpus juvenile-offender juvenile-offenders neurological-development neuroscience | Whether the Eighth Amendment's evolving standards prohibit the execution of offenders who were 19 years old at the time of their crime | |
| 18A1002 | Joseph Carter v. Florida | Florida | 2019-04-01 | Presumed Complete | cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment juvenile-sentencing miller-v-alabama proportionality sentencing-discretion | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits a lengthy juvenile sentence that effectively constitutes a de facto life sentence without the individualized se… | |
| 18A1003 | Gary Reid v. Florida | Florida | 2019-04-01 | Presumed Complete | cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment juvenile-sentencing life-sentence miller-v-alabama proportionality | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits a life sentence for a juvenile offender without meaningful consideration of the defendant's age and development… | |
| 18-7503 | Abdur Rahim Ambrose v. Mississippi | Mississippi | 2019-01-18 | Denied | Amici (1)IFP | contemporary-standards-of-decency cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment geographic-arbitrariness racial-arbitrariness | Does the death penalty violate the Eighth Amendment? |
| 18-5425 | Jose Joaquin Ramirez v. Joseph Aponte, et al. | New York | 2018-08-02 | Denied | Relisted (2)IFP | access-to-courts civil-liberties civil-rights constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual cruel-and-unusual-punishment due-process equal-protection habeas-corpus involuntary-commitment mental-health mental-health-detention standing | Whether the New Mexico state bail law as applied ($30.42) to a bill of rights violation, purposely keeping a recluse out of the court process in viola… |
| 24A553 | Annette Chambers-Smith, Director, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction v. Kayla Jean Ayers | Sixth Circuit | Presumed Complete | cruel-and-unusual eighth-amendment gender-affirmation medical-treatment prison-conditions transgender-rights | Whether a state corrections department can be compelled to provide gender-affirming medical treatment to an incarcerated transgender individual under … | ||
| 24A284 | Freddie Owens v. Bryan Stirling, et al. | Fourth Circuit | Denied | capital-punishment competency cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment mental-illness | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate with a documented history of severe mental illness that substantially impai… | ||
| 18A1202 | Robert Joe Long v. Florida | Florida | Presumed Complete | cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment etomidate lethal-injection medical-condition | Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the use of etomidate in a lethal injection protocol for an inmate with temporal lobe epilepsy and brain damage | ||
| 25A698 | Frank Walls v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. | Eleventh Circuit | Denied | cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment lethal-injection medical-vulnerability pulmonary-edema | Question not identified. | ||
| 25A892 | Ronald Palmer Heath v. Florida, et al. | Florida | Denied | cruel-and-unusual drug-administration eighth-amendment lethal-injection method-of-execution protocol-violation | Question not identified. |