death-row
18 cases — ← All topics
| Case | Title | Lower Court | Docketed | Status | Flags | Tags | Question Presented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25A438 | Demond Depree Bluntson v. Texas | Texas | 2025-10-16 | Presumed Complete | capital-murder certiorari death-row due-process eighth-amendment indigent-defendant | Whether the Eighth Amendment and due process protections prohibit the imposition of a capital murder conviction and death sentence where there are sub… | |
| 25A429 | Tilon Lashon Carter v. Texas | Texas | 2025-10-15 | Application | constitutional-rights death-row exculpatory-evidence ineffective-assistance postconviction-relief texas-criminal-procedure | Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals violated a death-row inmate's constitutional rights by denying postconviction relief without adequate cons… | |
| 25A215 | Gary David Green v. Texas | Texas | 2025-08-22 | Presumed Complete | certiorari death-row death-sentence due-process indigent-defendant texas-criminal-appeals | Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' affirmance of a death sentence violated the defendant's constitutional rights to due process and effectiv… | |
| 24-1067 | John Wetzel, et al. v. Roy L. Williams | Third Circuit | 2025-04-09 | Denied | Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2) | constitutional-rights death-row eighth-amendment mental-illness qualified-immunity solitary-confinement | Was it clearly established for qualified immunity purposes that long-term solitary confinement for a death-row inmate with a mental illness violated t… |
| 24A775 | Micah Brown v. Eric Guerrero, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division | Fifth Circuit | 2025-02-11 | Presumed Complete | certificate-of-appealability constitutional-rights death-row federal-review habeas-corpus section-2254 | Whether a state court's denial of a certificate of appealability in a federal habeas corpus proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 violates a death row inm… | |
| 24A625 | Chad Alan Lee v. Ryan Thornell, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry | Ninth Circuit | 2024-12-26 | Presumed Complete | certiorari death-row federal-review habeas-corpus ninth-circuit state-conviction | Whether the Ninth Circuit applied the correct standard for denying a federal habeas corpus petition challenging a state criminal conviction | |
| 24-5671 | Garcia Glenn White v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division | Fifth Circuit | 2024-09-30 | Denied | IFP | aedpa cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-row Does the Eighth Amendment prohibition against crue eighth-amendment intellectual-disability time-limitation | Whether the Fifth Circuit's resolution of counsel substitution replicates the Christeson error and fails to address a potential conflict of interest i… |
| 24A60 | Keith Edmund Gavin v. Alabama | Alabama | 2024-07-17 | Presumed Complete | criminal-procedure death-row filing-fee in-forma-pauperis indigent-status judicial-discretion | Whether a death row inmate's in forma pauperis application can be denied based on having received monthly inmate deposits that exceed the filing fee t… | |
| 23-7153 | Brian J. Dorsey v. David Vandergriff, Warden | Missouri | 2024-04-07 | Denied | IFP | capital-punishment cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-row deterrence eighth-amendment penological-goals rehabilitation retribution | When a death-sentenced person has demonstrated that he has been rehabilitated, does the Eighth Amendment prohibit his execution because the penologica… |
| 23-5039 | Thomas E. Creech v. Tim Richardson, Warden | Ninth Circuit | 2023-07-05 | Denied | Amici (1)IFP | capital-sentencing death-row eighth-amendment habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel psychopathy sixth-amendment | Whether evidence of or reference to psychopathy should be treated as potentially mitigating or as categorically aggravating in capital sentencings |
| 22-5848 | Benjamin Robert Cole v. Jim Farris, Warden | Oklahoma | 2022-10-17 | Denied | IFP | death-row disputed-issues-of-fact eighth-amendment execution-competency ford-v-wainwright fourteenth-amendment panetti-v-quarterman procedural-safeguards state-court warden-gatekeeper | Whether it violates the Eighth Amendment and this Court's decisions in Ford v. Wainwright and Panetti v. Quarterman, for a state court to bypass proce… |
| 21-1268 | Joe Clarence Smith, Jr. v. David Shinn, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. | Ninth Circuit | 2022-03-18 | Denied | 14th-amendment 42-usc-1983 8th-amendment civil-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-row eighth-amendment habeas-relief method-of-execution section-1983 | Whether Mr. Smith's method-of-execution challenge is cognizable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 | |
| 18-9832 | Patrick H. Murphy v. Bryan Collier, Executive Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, et al. | Fifth Circuit | 2019-06-27 | Denied | Amici (1)IFP | civil-rights death-penalty death-row due-process establishment-clause free-exercise free-exercise-clause pastoral-accompaniment religious-liberty rluipa | When a death-sentenced inmate informs prison authorities a month in advance of his scheduled execution date of his desire to be accompanied during the… |
| 18-9288 | In Re Sherman Lamont Fields | 2019-05-15 | Denied | IFP | actual-innocence appeals constitutional-rights death-penalty death-row due-process immediate-relief ineffective-counsel judicial-bias miscarriage-of-justice wrongful-conviction | Do petitioner have a Constitutional Right to be set free Immediately in light of the overwhelming evidence showing that he was framed for the crime(s)… | |
| 18-8057 | Duane Allen Short v. Ohio | Ohio | 2019-02-21 | Denied | IFP | capital-defense capital-punishment death-penalty death-row effective-assistance-of-counsel ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigation mitigation-evidence plea-bargaining sixth-amendment | Whether a capital defendant's Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel is violated where, but for counsel's intervention and unfou… |
| 18-6890 | In Re Joseph C. Garcia | 2018-11-30 | Denied | IFP | actual-innocence capital-punishment cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-row eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-cruel-and-unusual-punishment fourteenth-amendment fourteenth-amendment-due-process psychological-stress | Whether Joseph Garcia's extended stay on Texas' death row for nearly 16 years has resulted in his suffering additional severe psychological stress tha… | |
| 18-6214 | Ricardo Rene Sanders v. Ron Davis, Warden | Ninth Circuit | 2018-10-04 | Denied | Amici (1)IFP | brady-violation brady-violations california-habeas cullen-v-pinholster death-row eighth-amendment evidentiary-hearing federal-habeas habeas-corpus materiality materiality-test ninth-circuit prima-facie-case prosecutorial-misconduct | Whether the federal habeas courts should evaluate the summary denial of a California habeas petition based on whether the petitioner failed to allege … |
| 24A590 | Kevin Underwood v. Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, et al. | Tenth Circuit | Denied | clemency-proceedings death-row due-process fourteenth-amendment life-interest state-law | Whether the Due Process Clause provides constitutional protections for death row inmates in state clemency proceedings that are mandated by state law |