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life sentences

The Forgotten Jurisprudence of Parole & State Constitutional Doctrine of Vagueness

Cardozo Law Review (2023)

The majority of carceral sentences in the United States include the possibility of discretionary release on parole. Most such sentences, however, are unconstitutionally vague. Their unconstitutionality has gone unnoticed because contemporary scholarship and litigation about vague laws have focused on the U.S. Constitution in lieu of state constitutions. This Article unearths historic...

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The Evolving Standards, As Applied

Florida Law Review (2022)

In Jones v. Mississippi, the Supreme Court adopted a narrow reading of its Eighth Amendment categorical bar on mandatory juvenile life-without-parole (JLWOP) sentences. Specifically, the Court rejected the Jones’ claim that the Eighth Amendment categorical limit required a sentencing jury or judge make a finding of permanent incorrigibility—that the defendant is beyond...

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Cruel & Unusual Non-Capital Punishments

American Criminal Law Review (2021)

The Supreme Court has rendered the Eighth Amendment a dead letter with respect to non-capital, non-juvenile life-without-parole sentences. Its cases have erected a gross disproportionality standard that seems insurmountable in most cases, even for draconian and excessive sentences. State courts have adopted a similar approach in interpreting state constitutional Eighth Amendment analogues,...

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When a Prison Sentence Becomes Unconstitutional

Georgetown Law Journal (2022)

Mass incarceration has many evils. One of them is the length and apparent fixedness of many criminal sentences—a relatively new development in the history of American criminal adjudication. Sympathetic system actors, concerned about this problem, often complain that they lack the ability to revisit sentences that have outlived commonsense value. This complaint...

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Does Atkins Make A Difference In Non-Capital Cases?

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal (2014)

The holding in Atkins v. Virginia is clear. The execution of [intellectually disabled people] … is unconstitutional. One other feature of the Atkins decision is also certain; the reason the 8th Amendment is violated by the use of the death penalty with such convicted defendants. That is because defendants with intellectual disabilities...

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The Court of Life & Death: The Two Tracks of Constitutional Sentencing Law & the Case for Uniformity

Michigan Law Review (2009)

The Supreme Court takes two very different approaches to substantive sentencing law. Whereas its review of capital sentences is robust, its oversight of noncapital sentences is virtually nonexistent. Under the Court’s reading of the Constitution, states must draft death penalty statutes with enough guidance to avoid death sentences being imposed in an...

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Some Thoughts On Proportionality

Oregon Law Review (2008)

This Article reviews the ancient concept of proportionality in punishment and turns to the more systematic application of this concept in the mid-18th century by Cesare Beccaria and William Blackstone and to current discussions of “just deserts” as a theory of criminal punishment. The Article then returns to the historical development of...

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