| 25A28 |
Mica Alexander Martinez v. Christe Quick, Warden |
Tenth Circuit |
2025-07-08 |
Presumed Complete |
|
capital-punishment constitutional-error death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-protocol habeas-corpus |
Whether the Eighth Amendment permits the imposition and execution of a death sentence in light of systemic delays and potential constitutional errors … |
| 24A1279 |
Richard Jordan v. Mississippi State Executioner, et al. |
Fifth Circuit |
2025-06-25 |
Denied |
|
alternative-method chemical-paralytic eighth-amendment execution-protocol lethal-injection midazolam |
Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the use of a three-drug lethal injection protocol that includes midazolam, a chemical paralytic, and potassium … |
| 24A621 |
Jason Orlando Rios v. Florida |
Florida |
2024-12-23 |
Presumed Complete |
|
execution-protocol first-amendment free-exercise prison-rights religious-accommodation spiritual-advisor |
Whether a state prison's denial of religious accommodation for an inmate's spiritual advisor during execution violates the First Amendment's Free Exer… |
| 23-6562 |
Kenneth Eugene Smith v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. |
Eleventh Circuit |
2024-01-25 |
Denied |
IFP |
cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment equal-protection execution-protocol nitrogen-hypoxia preliminary-injunction ptsd-trauma standing |
Did the Eleventh Circuit deviate from established precedent when it affirmed the denial of a motion for a preliminary injunction on the ground that hi… |
| 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… |
| 23-5740 |
Jedidiah Isaac Murphy v. Texas |
Texas |
2023-10-10 |
Denied |
IFP |
catastrophic-event catastrophic-fire civil-rights death-penalty discovery drug-administration due-process execution execution-protocol inmate-rights procedural-due-process |
Is an inmate who is to be executed entitled to procedural due process to discover the effects of a catastrophic fire on the drugs to be used in his ex… |
| 23-5145 |
James Edward Barber v. Kay Ivey, Governor of Alabama, et al. |
Eleventh Circuit |
2023-07-20 |
Denied |
IFP |
constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment emotional-anguish execution execution-protocol lethal-injection medical-suffering physical-suffering |
Did the Eleventh Circuit correctly hold that no amount of physical suffering and emotional anguish imposed by allowing hours-long and countless attemp… |
| 22-5872 |
In Re Benjamin Cole |
|
2022-10-20 |
Denied |
IFP |
competency death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment execution-protocol fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus mental-competency mental-illness original-jurisdiction |
Whether a prisoner who is incompetent to be executed can be executed under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments |
| 21-8084 |
Frank Jarvis Atwood v. David Shinn, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. |
Ninth Circuit |
2022-06-07 |
Denied |
Amici (1)IFP |
as-applied-challenge comity constitutional-challenge eighth-amendment execution-protocol federal-courts federalism inmate-standing method-of-execution standing |
Whether federal courts may direct specific alterations to a state's execution protocol in an as-applied challenge under the Eighth Amendment |
| 21-5592 |
John H. Ramirez v. Bryan Collier, Executive Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, et al. |
Fifth Circuit |
2021-09-07 |
Judgment Issued |
Amici (17)IFP |
compelling-governmental-interest compelling-state-interest execution-protocol free-exercise free-exercise-clause free-speech least-restrictive-means pastoral-support religious-land-use-and-institutionalized-persons-a religious-rights rluipa |
Does the State's decision to restrict a pastor's religious practices during an execution substantially burden the free exercise of religion under the … |
| 19-8695 |
Ruben Gutierrez v. Luis V. Saenz, et al. |
Fifth Circuit |
2020-06-15 |
Denied |
Amici (1)Relisted (12)IFP |
compelling-interest execution execution-protocol first-amendment free-exercise free-exercise-clause religious-accommodation religious-adviser religious-exercise rluipa spiritual-aid |
Whether the State's policy of denying a religious adviser to a condemned prisoner during execution violates RLUIPA and the Free Exercise Clause |
| 19-1348 |
Alfred Bourgeois, et al. v. William P. Barr, Attorney General, et al. |
District of Columbia |
2020-06-09 |
Denied |
Amici (2) |
administrative-law agency-deference agency-rule capital-case death-penalty execution-protocol federal-death-penalty-act federal-law notice-and-comment procedural-rule statutory-interpretation |
Whether the phrase 'prescribed by the law of the State' in 18 U.S.C. § 3596(a) includes those procedures that state law requires state officials to es… |
| 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… |
| 18-8615 |
In Re Patrick Henry Murphy |
|
2019-03-28 |
Denied |
IFP |
capital-punishment civil-rights due-process equal-protection establishment-clause execution-protocol first-amendment free-exercise religious-accommodation religious-freedom state-procedure |
Whether the Constitution or federal statutory law requires that members of all faiths be permitted to be accompanied in the execution chamber by a min… |
| 18-1249 |
Christopher Lee Price v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. |
Eleventh Circuit |
2019-03-27 |
Denied |
|
compounding-pharmacy cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment execution-protocol lethal-injection midazolam pentobarbital |
Whether an Alabama death row inmate has shown that pentobarbital is 'available' to the Alabama Department of Corrections for use in executions |
| 18-6238 |
Edmund Zagorski v. Tony Parker, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Corrections, et al. |
Tennessee |
2018-10-09 |
Denied |
IFP |
constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment cruel-unusual-punishment due-process eighth-amendment execution-methods execution-protocol feasible-alternative fourteenth-amendment lethal-injection state-secrecy |
Where the credited, credible, and unassailable evidence at trial proves with certainty that a lethal injection protocol will inflict severe pain and m… |
| 18-5096 |
Raymond Tibbetts v. John Kasich, Governor of Ohio, et al. |
Sixth Circuit |
2018-07-03 |
Denied |
IFP |
baze-v-rees baze-vs-rees eighth-amendment execution-protocol glossip-v-gross glossip-vs-gross lethal-injection midazolam prisoner-rights scientific-evidence substantial-risk substantial-risk-of-harm substantial-risk-of-serious-harm |
Whether a prisoner challenging a midazolam three-drug lethal-injection protocol must prove with scientific evidence that the first drug is sure or ver… |
| 25A669 |
Harold Wayne Nichols v. Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General of Tennessee, et al. |
Sixth Circuit |
|
Denied |
|
due-process equal-protection execution-protocol fourteenth-amendment lethal-injection method-of-execution |
Whether the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause prohibits a state from applying disparate execution protocols to death row prisoners withou… |