sentencing

Banishing The Ghost of Red Hannah: Proportionality, Originalism, & The Living Constitution In Delaware

Widener Law Review (2021)

Article I of Delaware’s constitution provides a powerful safeguard against excessive or disproportionate sentences that, so far, has gone unenforced. Many of the rights protected by Article I are similar to those protected by the federal constitution. Article I, § 11 of the Delaware Constitution, provides that “[e]xcessive bail shall not be...

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...