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state antipunishment clause

Excavating Mississippi’s Punishment Clause

Mississippi Law Journal (2025)

The Mississippi courts have long interpreted the Mississippi Constitution’s punishment clause, which bars “cruel or unusual punishment,” in the same way as the U.S. Supreme Court interprets the Eighth Amendment, which bars “cruel and unusual punishments.” This assumption of the Mississippi courts-that the two clauses mean the same thing-is contrary to both...

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The Meaning of Life, In Michigan: Mercy from Life Sentences Under the State Constitution

Northwestern Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology (forthcoming) (2025)

Properly understood, the “cruel or unusual” punishment clause of the Michigan Constitution grants every person sentenced to life in prison a meaningful right to obtain release by making a convincing showing of rehabilitation. Today, however, Michigan has among the nation’s largest populations of people serving both formal and de facto life sentences...

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Past, Prologue, and Constitutional Limits on Criminal Penalties

The Northwestern Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology (2024)

Most criminal prosecutions occur at a level that is both neglected by many legal scholars and central to the lives of most people entangled in the criminal legal system: the level of the state. State v. Citizen prosecutions, which encompass most crimes ranging from robbery to homicide, are governed both by the...

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