The Law Dictionary for Everyone
Following is the case brief for Brown v. Plata, 563 U.S. 493 (2011) Case Summary of Brown v. Plata: California’s prison population was almost at double its capacity. Because of the overcrowding, a three-judge panel (resulting from two class action suits) determined that the lack of medical and mental health care resulted in an Eighth Amendment violation. Under the Prison […]
Read moreFollowing is the case brief for Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986) Case Summary of Ford v. Wainwright: Petitioner Ford was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Following his sentence, Ford began to act in manner consistent with a serious mental disorder. Ford then went through Florida’s procedure on determining the competency of a condemned prisoner, whereby three […]
Read moreFollowing is the case brief for Montgomery v. Louisiana, 136 S. Ct. 718 (2016) Case Summary of Montgomery v. Louisiana: In 1963, 17-year-old Montgomery killed a deputy sheriff in Louisiana. He was convicted and received a mandatory life-without-parole sentence. In 2012, the Supreme Court decided Miller v. Alabama, which held that a mandatory life-without-parole sentence for a juvenile violates the […]
Read moreFollowing is the case brief for Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988) Case Summary of Thompson v. Oklahoma: Petitioner Thompson was age 15 when he participated in a murder. He was tried as an adult and eventually sentenced to death. The State appeals court affirmed the conviction and sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, vacated the sentence and remanded […]
Read moreFollowing is the case brief for Stanford v. Kentucky, 492 U.S. 361 (1989) Case Summary of Stanford v. Kentucky: Kevin Sanford, 17, committed a horrible rape and murder in Kentucky. Heath Wilkins, 16, committed a similarly horrible murder in Missouri. Both individuals were sentenced to death. The Kentucky and Missouri Supreme Courts affirmed the death penalty in their respective cases. […]
Read moreFollowing is the case brief for Glossip v. Gross, 135 S. Ct. 2726 (2015) Case Summary of Glossip v. Gross: Following a botched execution by lethal injection and an investigation into the incident, Oklahoma approved a lethal injection method that incorporated the same drug used in the botched execution. Death row inmates sued to enjoin the use of one drug […]
Read moreFollowing is the case brief for Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976) Case Summary of Estelle v. Gamble: Respondent Gamble was seriously injured while doing prison work. He was seen 17 times by prison medical personnel, but his injuries persisted. Moreover, prison officials were not consistent in ensuring Gamble had his medications. They even put Gamble in solitary confinement, […]
Read moreFollowing is the case brief for Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651 (1977) Case Summary of Ingraham v. Wright: Corporal punishment was allowed in Florida schools, provided that the punishment was not “degrading or unduly severe.” Two students at a Florida middle school were subjected to particularly harsh corporal punishment. Families of the students filed a federal suit against the […]
Read moreFollowing is the case brief for McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987) Case Summary of McCleskey v. Kemp: Petitioner, an African-American man, was convicted in Georgia for murdering a white police officer and was sentenced to death. Seeking habeas corpus relief in federal district court, petitioner claimed that his death sentence was unconstitutional based on statistical study showing that […]
Read moreFollowing is the case brief for Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977) Case Summary of Coker v. Georgia: Petitioner was convicted of rape and other violent offenses. He was sentenced to death on the rape charge. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed petitioner’s conviction and sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed. The Court held that the death penalty for the […]
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