Lizzy Brilliant ’21 argues that keeping inmates on death row — and continuing to allow juries to hand down new capital sentences — when executions aren’t being carried out violates the Eighth Amendment. Moratoriums like California’s leave prisoners in permanent limbo and confuse jurors, so stopping new capital trials and sentencing is “the only constitutionally permissible judicial solution,” Brilliant writes.
Title: Unjustified Punishment: The Eighth Amendment and Death Sentences in States that Fail to Execute
Published in: California Law Review