Legal scholarship highlight: John Stinneford on the Courts Eighth Amendment jurisprudence
The Supreme Courts proportionality jurisprudence under the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause appears to be undergoing a kind of renaissance. Since 2002, the Court has held that the death penalty is an excessive (and therefore cruel and unusual) punishment for the mentally disabled, minors, and anyone convicted of a non-homicide offense against an individual.