method-of-execution

21 cases — ← All topics

Case Title Lower Court Docketed Status Flags Tags Question Presented
25-6746 Ronald Palmer Heath v. Florida, et al. Florida 2026-02-06 Denied IFP eighth-amendment lethal-injection maladministration method-of-execution pleading-requirements severe-harm 1. Is a narrowly tailored Eighth Amendment claim based on a State's documented, repeated maladministration of its chosen method of execution subject t…
25-6382 Frank A. Walls v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2025-12-16 Denied IFP constitutional-challenge eighth-amendment federal-review lethal-injection method-of-execution undue-delay 1. Whether the Eleventh Circuit erred in denying Mr. Walls review, based solely on undue delay, despite the primary basis for his challenge —records r…
25-6317 Harold Wayne Nichols v. Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General of Tennessee, et al. Sixth Circuit 2025-12-08 Denied IFP civil-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment lethal-injection method-of-execution statute-of-limitations 1. Because a method-of-execution-challenge involves a future harm, and not a past harm, lower courts have struggled to determine when the claim accrue…
24-7491 Richard Jordan v. Mississippi State Executioner, et al. Fifth Circuit 2025-06-25 Denied IFP chemical-paralytic constitutional-challenge eighth-amendment lethal-injection method-of-execution prisoner-rights Whether a method-of-execution challenge requires comparing the proposed lethal injection protocol to known alternative methods under the Eighth Amendm…
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…
23-6517 Kenneth Eugene Smith v. Alabama Alabama 2024-01-19 Denied IFP constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment lethal-injection method-of-execution nitrogen-hypoxia posttraumatic-stress-disorder Does a second attempt to execute a condemned person following a single, cruelly willful attempt to execute that same person violate the prohibition ag…
22-7305 Stacey Johnson, et al. v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction, et al. Eighth Circuit 2023-04-17 Denied IFP 8th-amendment cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment execution-challenge method-of-execution prisoner-rights scientific-consensus severe-pain standing Whether the Eighth Amendment requires a prisoner challenging the method of his execution to show a scientific consensus that the method is sure or ver…
22-580 John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections v. Kenneth Eugene Smith Eleventh Circuit 2022-12-22 Denied Relisted (9) alternative-method comity death-penalty eighth-amendment feasibility finality method-of-execution nitrogen-hypoxia Whether an alternative method of execution is feasible and readily implemented merely because the executing State has statutorily authorized the metho…
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
21-1268 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
21-439 Michael Nance v. Timothy C. Ward, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2021-09-22 Judgment Issued Amici (7)Relisted (2) alternative-execution civil-rights due-process habeas habeas-corpus lethal-injection method-of-execution ripeness section-1983 successive-petition Whether an inmate's as-applied method-of-execution challenge must be raised in a habeas petition instead of through a § 1983 action if the inmate plea…
20-287 Ernest Johnson v. Anne L. Precythe, et al. Eighth Circuit 2020-09-04 Denied Relisted (12) alternative-method bucklew-v-precythe constitutional-claim eighth-amendment legitimate-penological-justification method-of-execution penological-justification summary-judgment Whether Bucklew established a categorical rule for dismissing Eighth Amendment method-of-execution claims
19-235 Richard Jordan, et al. v. Virginia Department of Corrections Fourth Circuit 2019-08-22 Denied burden-of-proof civil-rights corrections-department death-penalty discovery discovery-rights due-process eighth-amendment glossip-standard glossip-v-gross lethal-injection method-of-execution section-1983 standing Whether the burden of proof demanded by Glossip in method-of-execution challenges requires commensurately broad discovery rights to provide plaintiffs…
19-5561 Stephen Michael West v. Tony Parker, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Correction, et al. Sixth Circuit 2019-08-12 Denied IFP 8th-amendment bucklew-standard bucklew-v-precythe civil-procedure civil-rights due-process eighth-amendment lethal-injection method-of-execution res-judicata section-1983 standing When an inmate's § 1983 challenge to a state's method of execution meets the timeliness and pleading requirements of this Court's decision in Bucklew,…
18-8766 Christopher Lee Price v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2019-04-11 Denied IFP appellate-review bucklew-standard civil-rights due-process evidence lethal-injection method-of-execution nitrogen-hypoxia preliminary-injunction standing Whether a district court can make factual findings based on evidence that may not be admissible at trial
18-8332 Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman, et al. v. Tony Parker, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Corrections, et al. Tennessee 2019-03-08 Denied Amici (1)IFP cross-examination discovery due-process execution-method execution-secrecy method-of-execution prisoners-rights privileged-communications standing state-officials state-secrecy Does a state deprive condemned prisoners of due process when, to defeat a challenge to the state's method of execution, state officials rely on and th…
18-852 Anne L. Precythe v. Ernest Johnson Eighth Circuit 2019-01-04 GVR administrative-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-method feasible-alternative glossip-v-gross method-of-execution nitrogen-gas pentobarbital pleading-requirements Whether an inmate who demands an alternative method of execution must plead facts detailing the procedure by which his proposed alternative method of …
18-6530 Edmund Zagorski v. Bill Haslam, Governor of Tennessee, et al. Sixth Circuit 2018-11-01 Denied IFP constitutional-protections constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-challenges due-process involuntary-waiver method-of-execution procedural-technicalities state-secrecy stewart-v-lagrand Did Glossip v. Gross modify centuries-old jurisprudence prohibiting involuntary waiver of constitutional protections in the context of method of execu…
25A577 Richard Barry Randolph v. Florida, et al. Florida Denied capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment irreparable-harm mental-competency method-of-execution Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate when substantial constitutional questions regarding the method of execution…
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 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.